Close Your Eyes
by Bloody Symphony
Summary: Tragedy has struck Konoha once more. The Kazekage is sending teams of shinobi to give aid to the village in any way they can, his brother included. Unexpected circumstances begin to weigh on Kankuro's mind, overwhelming him in ways he never thought he wanted.
1. Prologue

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Agony. That's all he felt. He couldn't even lift his eyelids.

Much like the rest of his body, his mind refused to cooperate. The only sound that came to his sensitive ears was a light dripping from nearby.

'_Where am I? What happened?'_

Suddenly, elusive visions – or maybe memories – came to the forefront of his mind. A booming roar of sound; bright light; screams cut short.

Interrupting his thoughts, a tremor sounded through the earth, causing white burning pain to travel through his torso, and a few small flecks of dust and debris to fall to the ground nearby. Though emotions travelled through his mind a mile a minute, there was one that stood out from the rest that was vaguely familiar.

'_What is this feeling?_' he asked to himself, sure he'd felt it before on at least a few occasions. Despite feeling like his thoughts were swimming in water, the answer came to him.

'_This is fear_', he concluded, as his mind faded swiftly into unconsciousness once more.

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* * *

**Hi. **

**So, this is my first story on this site. I've been reading on fanfiction a lot for the last few years, but never got around to writing anything of my own, despite how much I thought about it.  
I just thought I'd give you some warnings now, so I don't have to again. **

**So. Yes, this is a slash. I love the Naruto franchise, but one pairing I've always loved was Kankuro and Kiba, and frankly, there's just not enough of it, as far as I'm concerned. So, I thought, 'screw it, I'll do it myself.' Now we just have to see how this turns out.**

**As for the rating, I'm keeping at at T just now. This is mainly because, if I'm honest, I don't know exactly where I'm going with this. I have a general outline in mind, but I haven't thought through all the details yet. Problem is, I'm always changing my mind. I see new things, I decide to change something. I just sit there and think for a bit, I decide to change something. Listen to a song, I decide to change something. It's a problem I'm always having with my writing. I read through stuff I've written already, and I change just about everything.  
I guess, in that respect, posting it chapter by chapter on here will be good for me. If people read it, I won't be inclined to change it.**

**I'm totally open to constructive criticism. So, have at it.**

**Also, I'm British. Scottish, to be exact. I won't be trying to use any colloquial language, but if I do, let me know. Sometimes I do it by accident.**

**I suppose I should put this here, too.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**


	2. Chapter 1

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Gliding through the trees of Fire Country wasn't a new experience, but it was still unusual for the Jounin. Focussed on keeping his feet firmly attached to the rain-soaked branches as he rushed through the dense foliage, Kankuro, along with his team mates, rushed to follow his brother – the Kazekage's – request.

'_Help them_,' he had told them. There was no authority in his voice when he had said that, but something more akin to desperation and pain.

News of the attack on Konoha travelled fast and hit hard. Gaara, of course, immediately jumped to the aid of his best friend's village; Suna's ally. No one knew who was responsible. The Akatsuki, defeated over three years prior in the fourth great ninja war, were possible candidates; however, they had been out of commission ever since. There were no signs of any activity that could be concluded to be helpful to their ultimate goals in any way. Though this did not rule them out as suspects, it did make it far more unlikely.

'_I can't believe this has happened to them again_,' Kankuro thought grimly, rainwater soaking through his clothes, and down his face. '_Only this time, Pein isn't around to pull everyone back from their untimely deaths_'. The young Jounin had seen plenty of death and destruction in his twenty-three years, but he still wasn't sure what to expect when they arrived at their destination. He had friends and acquaintances in the Leaf, and despite his experience, he still silently prayed that nothing had happened to them.

"Captain, look!" Coming to a halt alongside his team mates, Kankuro shook his head slightly, forcing his mind back into reality, and glanced up. Smoke rose from below the treeline up ahead. It had been three days since the attack, but the village still burned despite the torrential downpour. He shuddered, and turned his head towards his team,

"Let's hurry," he ordered, "we're almost there."

* * *

As they stood in the entrance to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, they could do nothing but stare in abject horror upon seeing the absolute destruction that had been wrought – homes and businesses crumbled to the ground; craters, small and large, lined a ground that was littered with debris, along with the citizens of Konoha combing through the wreckage for the bodies of their fallen, praying that they would find them alive.

After a few seconds, two ANBU landed a few feet in front of them, one wearing the mask of a weasel, the other an eagle. They squared up their shoulders, clearly trying to look less exhausted than they were, and addressed them, "State your business. As you can plainly see, the village is not in any state to accommodate visitors at this time."

"I know," Kankuro replied, holding a scroll out to the ANBU who had spoken, "We're from Sand. The Kazekage sent us to provide any aid we can," he paused, glancing around at the devastation once again. He placed a hand to his forehead and sighed, "It sure looks like you need it, this is worse than anything I could have imagined - there are more teams following behind."

The ANBU opened the scroll and quickly glanced over it, double checking the signature at the bottom. His shoulders sagged slightly as he finished, and he handed it back to the puppet master. "Thank you," he said quietly, his voice betraying his emotions, "We're sorry for the questioning, but with all that's happened, we're struggling to find trust in anyone – Hell, I didn't even see your hitai-ates – I hope you will accept our apologies, Sand ninja."

"Please, call me Kankuro; and there's no reason to apologise, I understand your suspicion entirely," he replied quickly, bowing his head slightly, "All the teams following behind us will also have scrolls, so feel free to check them all before allowing them entry to your village." The two ANBU bowed their heads in response, and stepped aside, "We have heard of you, Kankuro of the Sand; we should have recognised you."

Kankuro smiled slightly in amusement, "Yeah," he replied, motioning to his painted face, "You'd think this would have given me away." He started forward, motioning for his teammates to follow him. He got about ten feet away when he hesitated. Turning his head back towards the two ANBU, he quietly spoke, "Thank you, and I'm sorry for your loss."

Wandering through the wreckage, Kankuro looked for any figure of authority. Soon, he spotted a group of people trying to shift a large boulder off the leg of an unconscious woman who was having her vitals checked by medic-nin. Kankuro and his team rushed forward to help. The extra strength shifted the boulder easily, and immediately medics were surrounding the woman, shifting her onto a stretcher and carrying her away.

Someone spoke next to him, "Thanks for that." Kankuro turned, facing a fatigued looking Jounin. "That's okay, you looked like you could use the help," he replied solemnly. "I wonder, could you tell me where I could find the Hokage? We're from Suna; we've been ordered to provide aid on the behalf of the Kazekage."  
"That's a relief to hear," the Jounin replied, clearly grateful for any and all assistance, "the Hokage should be in the infirmary. A lot of the hospital was damaged, but there's thankfully a rather large part of it that is structurally sound, so a temporary infirmary has been added onto that part to accommodate the injured until repairs can be made," he stated, looking thankful for that small relief, "Lady Hokage should be there treating patients. Just follow the medics who took that woman away, they'll lead you right there."

Kankuro nodded his thanks, and turned to follow his team, who had already begun to follow the route the stretcher had gone.

It took a while to reach the hospital through the debris, but the screams of the many injured being carried through the entryway was indication of their arrival. Kankuro motioned his team to his side, "Stay out here for now; this place is crowded enough as it is." Stepping aside to allow a patient-laden stretcher past first, he slipped through the entrance, glancing around at his surroundings. There were people everywhere – on beds, on stretchers, on blankets on the floor. There was barely enough room for all of the injured. Medic-nin bustled around quickly and efficiently, attempting to judge who was in need of the most help. It was chaos. Cries of pain and anguish, and the heavy stench of blood filled the air.

Someone bumped past him. A particularly harassed looking nurse turned towards him, stress evident in her features, "Watch where you're standing! What are you doing in here, anyway? Authorised personnel and patients only!"  
"I'm sorry, I just need to," Kankuro managed to stutter out before he was interrupted.  
"-We're in the middle of a crisis here, and we have too much to do with uninjured ninja standing around taking up space, now get out of here! Well? Go on!"  
Out of nowhere, someone placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. A head of pink hair was visible from behind her shoulder – Kankuro released a sigh of relief. As the woman turned, Sakura's face became visible, stern but patient.  
"It's okay, Misa. Kankuro here is the Kazekage's brother; I'm sure he's here to see Lady Tsunade?" She turned her face to him questioningly.  
"Yes, I have a message for the Hokage. I'm sorry for getting in the way, Misa," he stated, nodding his head to the flustered nurse.  
"Oh, I'm sorry, sir. Miss Sakura." She bowed slightly, and moved off again.

"Thanks, Sakura," Kankuro sighed, "I thought she was going to bite my head off."  
The pink haired woman laughed lightly, "She probably would have. Everyone's a bit wound up, I'm sure you understand."  
"Absolutely," he agreed quietly.  
"Well, Milady's just over this way, if you'll follow me," She motioned for him to follow her, heading towards where the temporary structure met the hospital walls.  
"Lady Tsunade's had a rough few days, I'm sure you can imagine," she said, turning her head to him as they walked.  
"I can imagine, but I still can't quite believe it," he replied, still gazing around, horrified at the sheer number of patients, "It must have been horrible."  
"It's been hell," she answered solemnly, "So many good people have been lost, or injured, and," she hesitated, a pained look came over her features, "and we haven't even found everyone yet."

Her voice cracked slightly as she said it. '_Oh no_,' he thought to himself, picturing the Rookie Nine in his head. '_It's got to be one of them. One of them is missing in the wreckage_,' he told himself, wondering who it could be.

"Well, here we are," Sakura's voice cut through his thoughts, "She's just through this door. Knock before you enter; she's on a break right now, unless a more serious case comes in."  
Kankuro placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Thanks, Sakura. I'm sure they're fine, whoever it is you're looking for," he told her, in a voice he hoped was reassuring.  
"Thank you, Kankuro, that means a lot," she said, smiling, before disappearing back into the bustle.

Kankuro took a deep breath before knocking semi-forcefully on the door. Instead of hearing permission to enter, as he'd expected, the door opened before him, revealing Shizune. The Hokage's aid gave him a tired smile, and stepped aside to allow him entry.

"Kankuro," he heard from the other side of the room, "I have to say, it's a relief to see Sand ninja here; to help, I presume."  
He gave a low bow to the woman sitting at the desk, his face not giving away his surprise at how much older she looked from usual.  
"We got here as fast as we could, Lady Hokage," he replied, "My team was sent ahead; other are following a few hours behind us."  
He walked over to the desk and handed the scroll to her. Aged hands unrolled it and laid it on the desk.  
"Oh my," she said, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth, "your brother is certainly being overly generous, sending this many of his ninja to aid us."  
Kankuro tilted his head slightly, "He doesn't see it that way, Milady. He sees it as just helping out friends," he stated with a small smile.  
The older woman smirked slightly, crossing her fingers neatly under her chin, "Indeed."

"What is it that we can do to help, Lady Hokage?" he prompted, steering the conversation back on track.  
"Ah, yes," she said, her smile fading, "Well, our priority right now is finding those that are trapped under the rubble, dead or alive," she added with a wince, "our only problem is, this downpour has been non-stop for the last week, so tracking with nin-dogs is next to useless, and besides that many of our ninja that are unsurpassed in tracking are out of commission due to injury, or worse."  
"That is a problem," he replied, thoughtfully. "What about the Aburame clan?" he thought out loud, remembering the creepy guy in the Rookie Nine.  
"As I said, injured or worse," she answered sadly, "the Aburame compound was one of the many clan compounds directly targeted. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.

"They targeted all of the major clans, but the most damage was done to the ones with bloodline limits and talented tracking abilities. The Hyuuga clan, the Aburame clan, even the Inuzuka compound was attacked, even though their tracking is made infinitely harder with this damned rain!" Tsunade stood up and started pacing, continuing her rant.

"So many of my best ninja are injured or dead. Luckily, some were away on a long-term mission when the attack happened, but we've heard no word from them, and we could really use their help right now. Damn Kakashi, always late for everything."

Kankuro lifted his head slightly, "Kakashi's not here?"

"No," she replied, "He, Naruto and Sasuke are away for a long-term mission in Rain country; which is a shame, because I could really use all of their help in this situation. Though, I suppose I should be happy they weren't here to get injured during the attack." She added, giving herself some slight relief in the dire situation. Kankuro heaved a sigh, happy he could tell the Kazekage that his best friend was alright.

"Well, I guess I should go get my team and we can get started," he stated, turning to leave. He hesitated. "I hate to ask, but Sakura mentioned someone that hasn't been found; it sounded like she was referring to someone specific, like a friend."  
"Yes, what about it?" she replied.  
"Well, I just thought that if it's one of Sakura's friends, then chances are that I know them too…" he trailed off, leaving the request unfinished.  
Tsunade sighed in a defeated manner. She looked Kankuro in the eyes and said, "Well, there's many people missing that she'll know, but I can only assume that in this instance, she was referring to Kiba Inuzuka," she stated solemnly. Kankuro's eyes widened, his heart jumping to his throat hearing that name.  
"K-Kiba?" he stuttered, trying to regain his composure.  
"Yes," she replied, a deep frown lines appearing between her eyes, "Last anyone saw him he was heading from the Inuzuka compound towards Ichiraku's to meet with his teammates, about twenty minutes before the explosions started. He's not been seen since.

"Most of the Inuzuka clan are injured, but those that aren't have tried tracking him down, but haven't been able to smell a single thing because of the rain. Tsume, his mother, is stuck in the recovery sector of the infirmary with two broken legs, and she's still giving everyone hell about finding her son," she sighed unhappily, "Not that I blame her. Her home is destroyed, her clan mostly injured, her daughter's still unconscious after a blow to the head, and her son has been missing in the rubble of a broken village for the last three days. I would be upset as well."  
Kankuro hummed in agreement, still in shock.  
"Well, I'll leave you to have your rest, Lady Tsunade," he stated quickly, bowing before turning to leave, "You need to keep up your strength."  
He nodded quietly to Shizune on his way out, closing the door behind him.

'_Kiba_,' he thought miserably, '_I can't believe that feisty pup is the one that's missing._' He meandered through the patients and medics to find his team.


	3. Chapter 2

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Following his departure from the makeshift hospital extension, he ordered his team to help wherever they could; clearing the rubble and finding and releasing the trapped civilians of Konoha were top priority, dead or alive. With that, his teammates swiftly walked in different directions through the toppled buildings. Heaving a sigh, Kankuro glanced around before choosing a direction. As he walked, he tried to gauge which of the groups around him could use another helping hand. So far, there were quite large groups that seemed to be handling their tasks with relative ease.

In his peripheral vision, he suddenly spotted a flash of white. Twisting his head towards it, he saw a huge white dog weaving his way quickly through the rubble, tail between its legs and nose practically attached to the ground. Kankuro quickly realised that he knew this dog, despite the bandages wrapped snugly around his torso and upper hind legs. The person who followed after the dog confirmed his observation.

"Akamaru!" Hinata cried out, stumbling over loose bricks and falling forward, avoiding landing on a heavily bandaged arm, as she tried to catch up to the desperate dog, "we've already checked this way three times already, Akamaru!" It had been years since he'd seen the girl – or any of their group, really. Her hair had grown out a bit again, though still shorter than it was when she was a girl. From the sounds of it, she'd managed to control that nervous stutter, though her voice was still rather quiet. Her Hyuuga clan eyes were still as piercing as always, but the Sand sibling couldn't sense much chakra from the tired looking girl.

"Doesn't look like he really cares, does it?" Kankuro asked rhetorically, smiling kindly as he walked forward to hold his hand out to the fallen girl, "his master's missing; I'm sure he'll check a dozen times or more before he's sure." Her cheeks reddened with an embarrassed blush as she took the Sand-nin's gloved hand, and stood up with a sad smile,  
"Thanks, Kankuro. I know he doesn't care, but it just seems a bit hopeless to keep looking here," she said quietly as she brushed dirt off herself, "I don't think he wants to admit that his nose just isn't going to do any good with all this rain."  
Tears welled up in her eyes as she glanced around at all the destroyed buildings, a look of hopelessness etched into her rain-drenched features.

"Hey, now," Kankuro said, putting one arm around the disheartened kunoichi's shoulders, "It won't do you any good to be so negative. Kiba's strong – if anyone can get through something like this, it's him."  
As water finally spilled from her eyes, mixing with the rain already running down her pale face, she spoke, her voice broken by quiet sobs, "I don't see how he could. It's been almost four days!" she started weeping noiselessly, covering her eyes with her hands.  
The sand-nin's eyes hardened, and he turned to face the girl, placing his hands firmly on both of her shoulders,

"Look at me, Hinata," his voice stern. She ignored him, so he jolted her shoulders lightly, "I said look at me."  
She tilted her head up, her eyes becoming visible as she lowered her fingers slightly, still hiding the majority of her face with lightly fisted hands. She quavered slightly at Kankuro's angry stare,  
"You have to have more faith in your teammate; your friend. He needs you to not give up on him. You don't even know that he's dead, but you're already acting like you're looking for a corpse."  
Hinata's breath stuttered in her throat as he said this. He wasn't actively trying to be harsh, but maybe some tough love would do the girl some good.

"Kankuro is right, Hinata," a low voice said from the sand-nin's back. He spun around, coming face to face with the third member of Team Kurenai, "we can't give up on Kiba – or else who would help Akamaru rescue him when he finds him?"  
"Oh, Shino," the kunoichi cried out lightly, as she ran around the sand-nin and into her teammates awkward embrace, "I'm sorry, but it just seems so hopeless!"

From first appearances, the bug shinobi looked relatively unharmed, apart from a small bandage stuck to his forehead, but the sand-nin knew better; He could sense almost no chakra from the young man, just like his teammate, and it was obvious he was hiding how much pain he was in, and how exhausted he was, behind his expression, as well as his dwarfing clothes. He stood uncomfortably as his teammate wept rivers of tears into his chest, patting her back lightly. Kankuro was about to cut in before the socially awkward man could utter out a 'there, there' when he was beaten to the punch by a loud, rumbling howl echoing through the destroyed buildings, and over the busy sounds of the other civilians around them. All three shinobi whipped their heads in the direction of the sound with a start, immediately rushing in the direction of the distraught sounds.

When did it stop raining?

* * *

The three ninja skidded to a halt, met with the sight of the huge dog scratching away at the debris-riddled road by more foundations of destroyed buildings. His howls had diminished to desperate whines as he alternated between scratching at the rock and sniffing around the area again. The ground the dog seemed interested in looked sunken in; a hole in the road, not too large, filled in with the remnants of the surrounding buildings.

"Is there anything below this section of road?" Kankuro asked the two natives, pointing to where the dog was clawing away frantically. Both lowered their heads marginally at the question, thinking it over. Seconds later, Shino's snapped up, glancing quickly at the surrounding buildings. His head stopped at the large building a few dozen metres up the road. He pointed at it,  
"The library," he said, as urgently as Shino's monotoned voice could be, "it has archives in a basement that stretches at least a block away from the library wall itself."

Before the bug ninja had even finished his sentence, Kankuro was moving towards the devastated building, motioning with his hand for the others to follow behind. As he arrived at the entrance, where the doorway stood, surrounded by crumbling walls, he turned to see that Akamaru still hadn't left his previous spot. With a sharp whistle, he gained the dogs attention, "We can get down to Kiba this way, Akamaru."  
The dog immediately perked his ears up at the sound of his master's name, bounding forward to Kankuro's side. The sand-nin glanced at the door in front of them, stunned that it had remained in its frame through the ordeal. He reached out his hand to grasp the handle, and the door fell inward, practically disintegrating as it hit the ground, leaving its handle in Kankuro's grasp. '_Well,_' he thought, a humourless smirk quirking at his mouth as he dropped the useless hunk of metal to the ground, '_so much for that._'  
Stepping over the remains of the door, he glanced around the desolate building. What remained of the walls was charred black, and ashes of the books and scrolls that once resided here shifted through the room as a draught easily picked them up from where they rested. The air was close in the building; despite all the holes in the walls and ceilings; it was almost suffocating. The building seemed to swallow up any residual sound from the bustle of people outside, leaving them in an almost deafening silence. Dust and small stone particles were falling lightly from the frail remnants of the ceiling overhead, presumably from the impact of the door falling inwards.

"Move slowly and quietly," Kankuro murmured, turning his head to his companions, "we don't want the building to cave in on us." They nodded slowly in agreement, Hinata glancing apprehensively at the unstable structure around them. Kankuro opened his mouth to ask where to go next, but Shino spoke up before he could, "The stairwell that leads to the basement is through the door about twenty feet to your left," he stated, pointing a finger at a heavy looking door in the corner of the room. The door had been locked, but the heat had warped it in its frame, causing the edges to shrink away from the jamb. The shrinkage made the deadlock visible, and therefore easier to break, as Kankuro pulled out a kunai and rammed it into the front of the damaged lock. The metal gave away easily, weakened by the heat damage it had endured, and the door swung inward, squint on its hinges, and letting forth a creak that broke the almost deafening stillness of the room. Stepping forward lightly, the three shinobi looked uneasily down the solid stone staircase, into the inky darkness below. The three were suddenly pushed aside by the huge white mass that was Akamaru, as he trotted determinedly down the stairwell, his nose twitching as he tried to sense even the smallest iota of his master's presence.

With renewed determination, the three nin followed the hound down into the depths of the library, their hands touching the wall to their left to keep on track. Shino broke the silence from where he walked carefully behind his teammate, "there should be lanterns on a table somewhere near the bottom of the stairs; they kept them for people who came at night, or those who wanted to access further sections of the archives," he said, putting out his free arm to grip Hinata's as she stumbled slightly on an uneven step, "it's too time consuming to light and extinguish all the lamps in the archives, so a lot of them are only lit as needed."  
Kankuro hummed his acknowledgement, concentrating on trying not to fall, as he thought about how that was probably the most he'd ever heard the bug-nin say in one go. A few steps later, and he reached the bottom. Reaching his hands forward to determine his new surroundings, something wet touched one of his hands, causing him to jump slightly, before feeling the snuffling breath of the nin-dog against his palm. He chuckled lightly, shifting the hand to the dog's ears, scratching behind them lightly, rewarding the dog for waiting for them. Akamaru gripped Kankuro's sleeve lightly with his teeth, pulling the sand-nin carefully to the side. He softly told the others to stay where they were for a minute, before allowing the dog to drag him. One arm occupied in the jaws of the gentle giant, Kankuro's other arm was thrust out in front of him at waist height, trying to keep him from bumping into anything. Abruptly, his hand came into contact with a wooden object that he quickly surmised to be a table. Reaching out, blindly shifting his hands over the table, he felt a small wooden stick. Feeling over the small object, he felt the rounded head, and smiled to himself, quickly striking it against the table.

The sudden light, regardless of how small, caused Kankuro to wince slightly. He quickly adjusted, scanning his eyes quickly over the table, seeing four lanterns lined up against the wall. Hastily lighting one, he turned to his companions, motioning them over, ignoring their immediate surroundings for the moment.  
They made their way over, Hinata immediately going to Akamaru and hugging his head, praising him for his help. Lighting two more lanterns, Kankuro handed one to each of the others, picking up his own in the process. He turned to the huge dog, a look of grim determination on his face as he spoke, "Time to find your master, boy."

* * *

As the four figures moved slowly between the darkened shelves, they tied to gauge the damage done to the room. Surprisingly, it didn't look too bad. The majority of the shelves, and the important and historical documents that rested on them, were relatively unharmed, if covered in quite a bit of debris and dirt. There were, however, some places that they passed where small parts of the ceiling had clearly caved in, and been filled again with debris, presumably during the main attack - much like the one Akamaru had been howling over outside.  
As they made their way closer to where they estimated their cave-in was, Akamaru's head and ears perked up, his nose twitching in the dank air. With a whining bark, he suddenly bounded off towards the darkness, veering off to the left; the others followed the dog, trying to keep him within the circle of light their lanterns created. They saw him turn right at a skewed bookshelf, a pile of rock and debris slightly visible through the shelves, and followed quickly. What they found around the corner had mixed feelings sweeping through all three shinobi. The most prevalent, though, were relief and fear.

Before them lay their friend, his faithful dog crouched on the floor beside him snuffling at his hair and lightly licked his face. The young man looked so still, as he lay on his back over the remains of whatever he had landed on. Kankuro moved forward slowly, each step sounding like an earthquake through his head, his heart pounding in his throat. A large metal pole, probably from the bookshelf he had landed on, had impaled the dog-nin through his left side. A large dark stain was barely visible on the dark fabric of his jacket both on his torso, and his right arm, which was trapped beneath what looked like a rather large chunk of a building. In addition, part of his trousers missing from what looked like fire damage, revealing reddened and blistering skin; on closer inspection, it was clear that some of the Inuzuka's clothes had melted onto the flesh. Kankuro's breathing came to a stop the same time as his feet did, as he reached Kiba's side, and knelt next to the fallen shinobi, watching his chest with baited breath.

It rose and fell, in small movements. The Sand shinobi released a sigh, as he turned his head, "He's breathing," he told the young man's comrades, with more relief in his voice than he knew he had. Shino and Hinata immediately moved forward, the bug ninja moving to his fallen friend's head, and lightly placing his fingers to the boy's throat. He frowned slightly, moving his fingers to the wrist.

"His pulse is very weak," he stated, still frowning,"and his breathing's uneven. He needs immediate medical attention." The quiet man turned to his teammate, "Hinata, I need you to go and tell Lady Tsunade; we need her to send a medic-nin to decide whether or not it's safe to move him in his condition."  
Kankuro hummed in agreement, a frustrated grimace passing over his features. The metal beam piercing the dog-nin's side could be the only thing keeping him from bleeding out. Then there was the problem of the man's trapped arm.

The young woman nodded quickly, holding her lantern out as she tried to rush back through the darkness without bumping into anything. The two remaining shinobi set out to see if there was any easy way to release Kiba without further harming him, while double checking the man's pulse every few minutes. Akamaru continued to lie by his master, his worried whimpers echoing every so often through the large room.

Within about ten minutes, multiple sets of footsteps were heard through the darkness, and the two young men glanced up to see lantern light heading their way. In seconds, the Hokage herself was in their presence, Sakura, Hinata and two Jounin carrying a stretcher following quickly behind her. Sakura's gasp resonated through the room, as she covered her mouth, tears pricking at her eyes. The Hokage's expression only changed for an instant, a slight glimmer of anguish reached only her eyes, before her concentrated frown quickly took its place once again. Kankuro and Shino moved slightly aside as she moved forward towards the heavily injured boy, kneeling at his side. The blonde woman examined the wounds, and then looked under the boy's torso to look at the metal that had pierced it. She motioned silently to Sakura, and the pink-haired kunoichi swiftly wiped the tears from her eyes, and replaced them with a look of determination as she moved to her mentor's side.

Tsunade glanced at her student, "We need to be quick about this," she stated grimly, "not only is there a possibility of bleeding out, but he's already been down here for three days; he needs to be attended to immediately," she paused, glancing at the surroundings briefly, before continuing, "but we can't do that here." She turned to the other shinobi present, "I'm going to need all of you for this to work."

She quickly outlined her plan. The two Jounin would help Tsunade lift the debris away from Kiba's arm. As they were doing this, Kankuro would have to hold Kiba steady, while Shino tried to keep the metal bar from shifting as well - even the slightest move in the wrong direction could cause fatal damage to the dog-nin. They would have to continue to do this as they lifted the injured man onto the stretcher, and then for the entire walk to the hospital, all while hoping that Kiba didn't wake up and try to move. Kankuro also suggested that he could further steady the stretcher with his chakra strings. Sakura would be keeping a constant watch on the young man's pulse and breathing while the Hokage would be attempting to stop the bleeding on his arm slightly as they walked. Hinata would walk ahead, lighting the way out of the chamber, and clearing the path of civilians and any other obstacles for the group to walk through unhindered.

There was a heavy silence after they were given their orders. Tsunade scowled at them, "Understood?" she barked lightly. The six shinobi standing before her nodded in unison, preparing themselves for a long and difficult trip. Shino and Kankuro both knelt by Kiba's side, the sand-nin holding the boy's torso still, as gently as he could, and Shino kept a firm grasp on the red-tinted bar that had his friend pinned, in case either shifted when the debris was moved; and move he did. The moment the large mass was shifted, Kiba took in a huge gasp of air, his body thrashing as much as it could in response to the pain. Kankuro held him down, as much as he could without further injuring him, trying to make Shino's job that much easier. As soon as the large rock was put to the side, he settled slightly, a pained expression marring his blood and dirt-spattered features. '_Don't get too comfortable, pup,_' the sand-nin thought grimly, '_it's not over yet._'

* * *

It took what felt like forever. Every so often, Kiba would partially regain consciousness, and try to move again, and every time they'd have to stop walking so Kankuro could try to calm him down some. Akamaru walked at his master's side the entire way, and would start licking his uninjured hand lightly in an attempt to calm him down when he struggled. The familiar feel of his dog's affection did help to calm the delirious man slightly. Civilians and shinobi alike turned to look at the slow group, probably because of the presence of the Hokage. A few made offers of help, but upon realising that more people crowding around the stretcher would cause more harm than good, they decided to aid Hinata in clearing a path, some shinobi going further ahead to clear a short cut to the hospital through the debris for the heavily injured Inuzuka.

The whole group sighed in relief when the hospital came into view. Trying not to quicken their pace in their hurry to get to their destination, the group continued moving forward, keeping a sharp eye on Kiba. As soon as they reached the entrance, medic-nin and nurses quickly caught onto the situation, and before Lady Tsunade could give any orders, they were already clearing a way through the other patients to the emergency ward and operating rooms in the main building. They all breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the end in sight.  
In a true cliché, the home stretch was the most unlucky.

Sakura's voice broke through the Sand sibling's relief, "He's stopped breathing!"

Kankuro felt like his heart had come to an abrupt halt. They rushed as quickly as they dared into an operating theatre, followed by numerous nurses and medic-nins, before everyone not medically trained got kicked out of the room by the Hokage with orders to rest. They caught one last glimpse of Kiba's oddly expressionless face before the door was shut lightly in their faces. Akamaru whined and scratched at the door for a minute, before lying on the ground in front of the door in defeat, resting his tired head on his paws.

Now, they could only wait.


	4. Chapter 3

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Waiting around and worrying would have been a waste of time. The three shinobi had all agreed on that fact after about twenty minutes waiting outside the operating room. They considered that the end of their break, and the tired trio left Akamaru in order to go out and continue helping the village; however, shifting and searching through debris, finding and taking care of the injured, and anything else they could think of, could do nothing to stem the worry that roiled through their minds. Kankuro heaved an exhausted sigh as he straightened up from where he had dropped the segment of wall he moved, his joints groaning and creaking as he stretched them out. Glancing up at the sky, he saw that darker shades were beginning to seep into the pale blue that had replaced the storm clouds. It had been hours now, since they had left the hospital in search of distraction. Every hour, he'd noticed more shinobi from Suna, as well as some who had arrived with the symbol of Kirigakure etched onto their headbands.

He came to the decision that with how worn out he was, he wouldn't be much help anymore. He was drained of both physical and mental energy, as well as chakra. His decision was made easier by the arrival of so many reinforcements from his village. He vaguely wondered, as he began to saunter through the wreckage in the vague direction he remembered the makeshift canteen was in, if any of the other villages had sent anyone. The Raikage, he expected, would send some of his shinobi, particularly if his brother had any say in the matter. The Tsuchikage, though - that was anyone's guess, knowing his stubborn nature. He let his thoughts wander as he meandered through the ruins of the proud Leaf.

Kankuro was unsure of how much time had passed when his feet finally came to a stop. He lifted his head to get his bearings, wondering if he'd reached the food hall, but as he raised his eyes, he realised he'd come to a stop in front of the hospital. He had seemingly turned around somewhere and had been heading in the wrong direction from where he'd intended. The puppeteer shook his head tiredly and, heaving an exasperated sigh, turned around to head back in the direction he'd come from, but something stopped him. Facing back towards the large building, images flashed through his mind. Blood and dirt smeared across red triangles; bruises and swelling decorating what used to be the picture of arrogant youth and contentedness. The sand-nin frowned lightly, tilting his head down slightly as he came to a decision and began moving towards the bustle of the hospital.

The hospital seemed quieter than it had been. Kankuro could only hope this was because there were less injured to find and that those that were wounded had been successfully healed. Everyone moved at a less rushed and more lethargic pace, especially now that there were medics from other villages that were available to take over from the over-worked Konoha nurses. He could see some medics that had simply sat on the floor next to the wall of the tent who had just decided to sleep there, rather than spend more energy finding a real bed. Then again, maybe they just wanted to be close by in case they were needed. The Sand sibling walked quietly between the cots, trying not to disturb anyone, patient or otherwise. As he reached the entrance to the main hospital building, where he surmised they were keeping the more critical cases, he glanced around, looking for any sign of Akamaru. The nin-dog was no longer lying in front of the door he and the other members of Team 8 had left Kiba. He took a left down a long corridor, hoping he was heading in some semblance of the right direction. As he drew closer to the next corner, he began to hear angry voices carrying down the hall.

"They cannot be in here! This is a place of healing, not a petting zoo!" a stressed voice screeched, echoing down the corridor. Kankuro reached the corner, and peered round it. As soon as he saw what was round the turn, he knew he was in the right place.

"This is not conducive to his healing; he is still wounded terribly. I won't allow it!" A short nurse with sharp features was shouting at another woman on crutches - both legs wrapped in bandages - whose back was turned to the sand-nin, and was surrounded by at least eight huge dogs.

"I am going to ignore that insult to my clan and our nin-dogs, and inform you that I am perfectly capable of deciding what is best for my own son," the powerful voice of the woman replied, the tone practically oozing dominance. The strained look on the nurse's face made that fact even clearer, as she pulled her shoulders back, attempting to look more intimidating in the face of the Inuzuka clan leader and her pack despite her trembling limbs. Tsume's reputation preceded her. Her proud and intimidating stance, even in crutches, had clearly been passed on to her son - from what he remembered of the boy when he was conscious, anyway.

A flash of white caught Kankuro's eye, and he saw Akamaru, looking tired and distressed, standing by Tsume's left leg. Seeing the poor dog with his head down and his tail between his legs, his whimpering increasing the longer he was denied entry to his master's room, was agonising to witness. To see one of their youngest in such anguish was causing the other dogs in the hallway to become more unsettled and irate. Though Kankuro could admire the nurse's courage and her commitment to her job, he still thought she was in the wrong in this case. It was a widely known fact that the Inuzuka clan depended on their dogs, both in battle and not. Separating the pack, particularly Akamaru, from Kiba went against everything their clan believed. He'd seen himself, when they were transporting the young Inuzuka to the hospital, that Akamaru's presence had calmed him, even in his unconscious state. Clearly, at least that dog's company would be more help than hindrance in this case.

Movement in front of him broke him from his thoughts, as Akamaru tried to sneak past the nurse while she still argued with Tsume, but the poor dog was too big to be particularly inconspicuous in this case, and the nurse moved to quickly slam the door in the big hound's face, but Kankuro could see that ending badly with the already irritated pack and mother. Reaching quickly into his emergency chakra stores, he quickly caught the woman's hand with a string, immediately stopping her from closing the door. Akamaru quickly slipped into the room as the rest turned to face the tired Sand-nin.

"Are you quite done?" he asked, his voice threateningly calm. At that, Tsume's face began to screw up, as she prepared to unleash the rest of her anger on him. Kankuro quickly cut her off, turning to the stunned nurse, still trapped by his chakra, "Everyone's had a trying few days, but still, I would think a citizen of Konoha would know that keeping an Inuzuka from their dog is never going to end well, let alone keeping the pack from one of their own in the state he's in," he stated, nodding his head to Kiba's still open door.  
Tsume's features immediately softened as she heard this, realising that Kankuro was siding with her, and looked to her side, finally realising that her son's companion was no longer there. She nodded in thanks to him, turning to enter Kiba's room, followed closely by the rest of the pack. The nurse was switching shocked looks between Kankuro and her hand that was still caught by chakra. After the last dog entered the hospital room, he released her hand, slouching his shoulders from the use of chakra he didn't really have to spare. Walking forward towards her, he softened his features in an attempt to calm her a bit. His face paint probably wasn't helping in this endeavour, as she still cringed away from him a bit.  
When he came to a stop in front of her, he smiled softly, "I'm sorry if I scared you. I know you're only trying to do your job, but you know I'm right."  
The small nurse huffed angrily, realising she was not in any danger, and began marching down the hall, "The Hokage will hear about this!"

Shrugging, Kankuro turned to the room that was eerily quiet for how many dogs he knew had entered. He peered round the door frame, curiosity getting the better of him. The room was still filled with hounds, but they were all silent as they looked on in anguish at their injured family member. Tsume sat on a chair next to her son's bed, her crutches set up against the wall, clasping his clammy hand with her own and gazing at Kiba's face as his lips released stuttered breaths and his skin dripped with fever. Akamaru had climbed up onto the bed and was lying parallel to his master, his head leaning as lightly as possible on Kiba's right hip, not wanting to restrict his breathing any more by leaning on the young shinobi's heavily bandaged torso. Kankuro stood in the doorway, leaning quietly against the frame, unwilling to interrupt the peace in the room. Tsume glanced quickly at the door, along with the dogs that accompanied her, locking eyes with the painted sand-nin. She nodded slightly, without a word, before turning back to her silent vigil. He could see stubborn tears trying to escape the elder Inuzuka's eyes, but the stoic woman refused to let them fall as she quietly watched her injured son. Kiba's struggling breaths were the only sounds in the room for quite a while, and Kankuro found his chest constricting in something akin to pain as he observed the dog-nin's discomfort. Though he was looking a lot better than he had when they'd first dropped him off, it was clear that there was not enough chakra to go around for them to heal Kiba fully. Kankuro watched uncomfortably as the fever seemed to get worse, seeing Tsume take a cloth from a bowl of cool water from the side table to wipe at her son's brow.

Feeling that enough was enough, Kankuro turned to see if he could find a medic to help, when he came face to face with the Hokage herself, just managing to stumble back slightly before he ran into her. She glanced briefly at Kankuro, seeming to read his emotions in that instant, before he stepped aside, bowing his head slightly, to allow her entry to the room, followed quickly by Shizune. Tsume turned to the door again, and went to stand, leaning her hand on the bed as well as Kuromaru's back. Tsunade waved her hand slightly, silently telling her that she could stay seated.

"I've been resting since we finished his surgery," she said quietly, walking over to Kiba's bed to lay her hand on the dog-nin's heated forehead. She frowned lightly at this, "we couldn't heal him completely, as none of us had enough chakra. Luckily, since then many medics from Suna," she paused to nod in Kankuro's direction, "and Kirogakure have shown up to relieve us, somewhat," she moved Kiba's blanket down some to inspect the bandages on his torso. She motioned for Shizune to lift the boy into a sitting position, and continued talking as she began unravelling the bandages from him, "as such, I have a bit more chakra to spare now. Fortunately, we managed to find most of the injured on the first day. Unfortunately, that means the many of those we found today were beyond our help."

She paused in her speech as she inspected the sealed wound on Kiba's side, a pinched look on her face, as though trying to stop the devastating emotions of her last sentence from overcoming her. The wound looked a lot better than it had, but the half-healed mark was red and angry. Looking at both the front and back of the wound, she hummed before speaking again, "Kiba is one of the worst we've had in, mostly because of how long he went without treatment, and how little chakra anyone had left to heal him completely," she motioned for Shizune to lower him again, sighing, "Well, it's not his side that's causing the fever. The redness means the wound is healing nicely and I see no sign of infection, though it'll still leave one hell of a scar," she paused to move down the bed a bit, pulling the covers down with her, one of the ninken swiftly moving out of her way, "which means it's most likely the burns on his legs that are causing a problem."

There were sterile clothes wrapped loosely around his legs, reaching from just above his knees to just under the shorts he wore, provided by the hospital. Less severe burns could be seen on his lower legs, causing parts of his calves to be blistered and swollen, but as she removed the cloth, the damage on his thighs was prominent. It looked a lot better than it had when they had found him, Kankuro thought to himself, as all of the fabric that had stuck to him had been removed, but it was obvious how severe the burns were. Tsume's hand clenched onto Kiba's lightly, still trying to keep her emotions controlled.  
"We surgically removed a lot of the dead skin caused by the burns on his thighs. Third degree burns are almost never easy, but these were particularly bad," she stated as she inspected both legs, and Tsume tensed at her words, "but luckily, I think these are healing quite nicely; there's some nerve damage that we can't do much about, but it's a lot better than it could have been. There's also a small infection on the right leg, which is causing the fever, but I'll deal with that just now while I'm rested." Tsunade laid her hands over the affected area, and a green glow appeared under them as she frowned lightly in concentration.  
Shizune took over the narrative as the Hokage worked, "Though we may be able to heal a large amount of the injuries, he will scar – rather severely on his legs and side; but many see scars as part of the package with shinobi," she said, smiling lightly, "we just need to keep the area clean and make sure there are no complications. His arm was shattered in a couple places, but we healed that up pretty well in the first surgery, so I'll fix up the rest just now." She headed to the dog-nin's right arm and began her own healing.

The tension seemed to gradually leave everyone in the room as some colour slowly began to reappear on Kiba's face. Tsume closed her eyes briefly in relief, before replacing that relief with her usual wild, yet stoic, expression. As the strain left, the dogs around the room began to relax, some sitting, while others turned on the spot before lying down, their eyes still on their injured pack member and his mother. Much like the Inuzuka hounds, Kankuro's eyes remained on Kiba for some time, looking for unseen expressions on the young dog-nin's face from his position at the door, vaguely wondering if he could feel pain right now. Akamaru remained by his master, not even moving when the medics came to heal Kiba; not that they asked him, or any of the dogs, to move anyway.

Kankuro had zoned out for time, only to be shocked out of his daydreams by the Hokage placing a hand on his shoulder. He tried to focus his tired mind on the words she was saying, "I think it's time for you to get some sleep, Kankuro," she told him with a kind smile. The room suddenly echoed with the loud grumblings of his empty stomach, which he uselessly covered with his hands, a slightly embarrassed smile etched onto his tired features. Lady Tsunade's own smile turned to a smirk, "maybe you should think about getting something to eat first, though," she stated, her tone leaving no room for argument, "you've been working all day, and that was after travelling all the way from Suna to get here; you must be exhausted," she continued, an air of gratitude around her. Behind her, he could see Tsume looking in his direction with a small smile twitching at the corner of her mouth, her dogs also looking in his direction, expectantly. Shizune, in her place behind and to the right of the Hokage simply raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I can see I'm outnumbered here," he muttered, defeated. He turned to leave, stopping briefly to address the Inuzuka clan leader, "Do you want me to find Hinata and Shino and send them here?"  
"I'm sure they'll find their own way here once they're rested, Kankuro," she replied, the hint of a smile growing into a full one, "thank you for the offer, but you just worry about yourself for now."  
With a small nod and bow, he turned out into the hallway again, sauntering lethargically towards the entrance again, determined to actually make it to the mess hall this time.

After getting food, he'd spotted his teammates sitting on some debris near the makeshift food court eating their own dinner. They agreed that they should set up a small camp near the edge of the village, as there was a limited number of cots available, and they unanimously decided that the many homeless citizens of Konoha needed those warm beds more than them. They could see many of the other foreign shinobi had come to the same decision when they got nearer to the outskirts of the destroyed village, seeing many small encampments set up near the walls.

Hours later, and the Sand sibling was still awake. It was well past midnight, Kankuro could hear the light breathing of his comrades nearby. He was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep. He'd been tossing and turning since he'd laid down, but no matter how tired he was, something was keeping him awake. Sighing in exasperation, he sat up in his sleeping bag, climbing out of the warmth and standing up as quietly as possible, glancing around to make sure he hadn't woken anyone. Deciding that taking a short walk would maybe tire him out enough that he'd get some sleep, he began meandering through the camps and the debris, keeping his steps as quiet as possible so as not to wake anyone up. The camps started to thin out the closer he got to the centre of the village. He couldn't help but think about how eerie the village was; the ravaged buildings coupled with the deafening silence left conflicting feelings of anger and sadness seeping through to his bones.

Drifting into daydreams again, he wandered aimlessly through the village again, trying to momentarily keep his mind away from the destruction that surrounded him. An indeterminable time later, his feet came to a stop. His eyes widened in confusion when he looked up, realising that for the second time in less than twelve hours, his 'aimless wandering' had led him directly to the hospital. Shrugging it off as a coincidence, he decided he might as well go check on a certain Inuzuka while he was here, unable to sleep. Entering the temporary ward almost silently, he glanced around at the seemingly endless sea of beds under the marquee. Other than the odd nurse weaving through the beds checking on patients, plus those sitting at the sides of the tent chatting quietly to each other or reading, there was no movement - other than the occasional shifting of patients as they slept. He sent a small wave to the chatting medics, who smiled tiredly in response, before he made his way towards the main building. He stopped in front of Kiba's door, which was now closed, quietly turning the handle and opening it a fraction to peer inside.

Tsume was gone, as were most of the pack. The only one left, other than Kiba himself, was Akamaru. The loyal dog was still lying parallel to his master on the bed, his head now up and turned in the direction of the door, sniffing in his direction. Kankuro opened the door more, allowing himself to slip into the room almost silently. He could see the giant dog's tail wagging slightly at the sight of him, trying not to disturb his master. The sand-nin made his way over to the bed, scratching the dog lightly behind an ear. Akamaru tilted his head in response, licking Kankuro's arm affectionately before delicately setting his head down on his master's lower stomach. Sighing exhaustedly, Kankuro took a seat in the chair that Tsume had occupied earlier, turning his gaze to the young Inuzuka. He looked a lot better than he had earlier. His fever had clearly dissipated, and his expression looked peaceful as he slept.  
Yawning quietly, Kankuro's leaned back in the chair, his energy absolutely drained. Each time he blinked, it felt like his eyes were closed for longer. Despite the insistence to himself that he would head back to his camp to sleep, the peace in the room became too much to resist, and the next time he blinked, his eyes remained closed as he finally drifted off.


	5. Chapter 4

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The first thing he became aware of was more than one presence close by. His eyes patiently remained closed as his body and mind adjusted to consciousness again. He could sense no malice coming from those he could sense in his surroundings; in fact, as his hearing eased back into focus, over the background noise filtering in from outside, he could hear at least two sets of slow, steady breathing, indicating they were asleep. He could feel a thin mattress below him, accompanied by the stiff sheets that seemed to trap most of his body, along with the heavy weight of something big, yet soft, along his right leg and hip.

Taking this moment of peace, Kiba tried to force himself to remember what happened before his mind blacked out, hoping to organise his thoughts into some semblance of order in his drowsy brain. Flashes of memories bombarded him; explosions, fire and terrified screams. Glimpses of civilians, or what was left of some of them, set ablaze by the seemingly never ending barrage of eruptions. He recalled trying to aid those escaping the buildings before a feeling of foreboding slammed into both his mind and body. He had turned around slowly, facing the shrouded figure that had appeared behind him. His memories seem to blur into sensations, rather than images, from that moment. He could almost feel the impacts his fists had made on his opponent, before a hand to his chest easily pushed him backwards with the force of a landslide, but he had managed to remain standing. Right after that, his memory just crashed into a haze of sound, weightlessness and pain. He flinched even trying to remember the moment.

The small movement triggered the object to his right to shift slightly, its breathing patterns shifting into awareness and the unobtrusive weight on his right hip was removed. He twitched his fingers, attempting to regain some of the blood flow that would hopefully reverse the slight numbness. The small motion was followed quickly by something wet snuffling into his hand before licking it slightly. Next to his foot he could feel a small movement of something moving back and forth. He smiled, shifting his hand to feel the head of his loyal companion and scratch him weakly behind his ears. An intense swell of release washed over him as he realised Akamaru was safe. Tears welled behind his closed lids, being released down his tattooed cheeks when he split his eyelids open slowly. Even though the room wasn't bright, the curtains shut, dulled daylight seeping through the fabric and around the edges, and the light was off, he still winced slightly at the change from anything darkness. When his eyes had adjusted, he shifted them to look at his dog, feeling the need to confirm that he was here and alright with as many senses as possible.  
Akamaru looked as relieved as he did, his tail beating back and forth faster than it had before, his ears perked up as far as they could, as he saw his master's eyes open. He started shuffling gently up the bed, closing in on his master's face before licking it mercilessly. With a snort of laughter, Kiba raised his arms slowly, their weakness apparent in this movement, particularly in his right arm, to wrap them around his dog's neck. He nuzzled his nose into the soft fur on his dog's neck, taking a deep breath and relishing in the familiarity of the smell of home.

His relief at seeing his companion safe made him forget the other presence he'd sensed in the room, but the commotion on the bed caused whoever it was to shift in their sleep, alerting Kiba to their presence. He turned his head to the left, facing a figure curled uncomfortably in an armchair near his bed. It wasn't anyone he would have expected it to be. He studied the face of the unknown shinobi, feeling like he recognised it from somewhere. His eyes wandered over the man's clothes; loose and black, the clothes covered almost all of the shinobi's body. The way his spiky brown hair was sitting slightly flat suggested that there was usually something covering his head as well. He rested his gaze on the man's face again, internally berating himself that he should know the man. A sliver of silver caught his attention, and his eyes focussed below the familiar stranger's head, where a hitai-ate rested on his collarbone, tied around his neck – presumably for sleeping. The symbol for Sunagakure was indented into the metal of the headband. Immediately, Kiba's eyes shot back to the slumbering shinobi's face, noting the tiny smudges of leftover paint near the man's jawline.

"Kankuro?" he whispered to himself. He couldn't help but wonder what the puppet-nin was doing there, sleeping in his hospital room in a chair that was clearly not made for sleeping. The slumbering nin shifted again in his sleep, his head tilting back against the back of the chair. That position had his mouth open a bit, causing a large snore to disrupt the peace of the room. Kiba sniggered quietly, not wanting to wake the man; he must be tired to be able to sleep in that chair. He decided that speculating on why the sand-nin was there was pointless. So he turned his attention back to his adoring dog, leaving his questions for when both of them were conscious.

* * *

It wasn't more than an hour later that Kankuro woke. Kiba was resting his eyes, his hand stroking Akamaru's head gently as the dog relaxed at his side when he heard a more defined shifting of the body to his left; bones popped, followed by a mild groan of pain. His mouth twitching with a smile, the dog-nin opened his eyes, tilting his head to the left to watch the poor sand-nin stretching out his cramped body. Kankuro's eyes were scrunched up as he straightened out his limbs back into a proper seated position before stretching his arms over his head, his back arching in the process. The sand-nin's shirt rode up slightly as he did; the lightly tanned skin, stretched over defined abdominal muscles, contrasted the black of his clothes, catching the attention of the dog-nin. Kiba quickly diverted his gaze back to the puppet master's face, which had settled into a more neutral expression now that his bones had stopped creaking with discomfort. His eyes cracked open, staring into space as he slouched in the chair.  
Kiba smiled again, before finally speaking up, "That's what you get for sleeping in stupid places," he said with a hoarse voice, causing Kankuro to jump before he turned to face the bedridden dog-nin.  
"You're awake?" he asked redundantly.  
"No, I'm fast asleep, Kankuro," Kiba replied dryly, rolling his eyes with a smirk.  
Kankuro leaned forward in his seat, resting his forearms on his thighs as he assessed the dog-nin. He looked like he was trying to decide what to say, but he eventually seemed to settle on the obvious, "How are you feeling?"  
Kiba paused, trying to evaluate how he was feeling; he hadn't really thought about it since he'd woken up. He felt tired, but not in the way that required sleep. His body just felt so heavy and his muscles so weak. He recalled the stiffness in his arms when he had hugged Akamaru, particularly in his right arm.  
He told Kankuro this, and watched as the sand-nin nodded, a sympathetic look on his face as he recounted where Kiba had been found and what condition he had been in.

"You were the one that found me?" Kiba found himself asking.  
"Well, it wasn't just me," the sand-nin replied, rubbing at the nape of his neck, "It was mostly Akamaru, actually," the large dog lifted his head at the sound of his name, and Kiba started scratching behind his ears again, "He didn't stop dragging Hinata around looking for you for the whole three days you were missing.

"I got involved by accident, really," he continued, "I bumped into Akamaru being chased around by Hinata, looking for you. Shino showed up about five minutes later, and then we heard Akamaru howling because he'd finally caught a scent through the rain. He never gave up on you." Kankuro leaned further forward on his chair so he could reach over Kiba and scratched the dogs head lightly.

'_Well, that explains why Kankuro's here_' Kiba thought to himself, '_sort of._'

"So, what are you doing here, anyway?" he finally asked the sand-nin.  
Kankuro looked up at that, confusion clear in his eyes, "Well, my brother sent a lot of shinobi to help out here."  
"No," Kiba replied, humoured exasperation leaking into his voice, "I meant what you are doing _here_? In my room."  
The sand-nin hesitated almost unnoticeably, shifting slightly in his seat, "That was actually sort of accidental as well," he started with a small chuckle, though Kiba noticed a light shade of pink creeping up his ears, "I was camping with my teammates, but couldn't sleep for some reason. I thought I'd clear my head by going for a walk," he paused for a moment, but the dog-nin raised his eyebrows, a silent command for him to continue.  
"I wasn't really paying much attention to where I was going, and when I finally stopped daydreaming, I was in front of the hospital," Kankuro said, in a somewhat rushed fashion.  
"So, you decided to check on me?" Kiba finished for him, a small smirk directed at the decidedly flushed shinobi.  
The flustered sand sibling glanced away, feigning disinterest despite his darkening colour spreading from his ears to his cheeks, before quietly mumbling, "Well, I had nothing better to do, mutt."  
Kiba's smirk grew at the insult, finding the sand-nin's denial amusingly endearing.

Before he could call him out on it, Akamaru lifted his head to face the door that subsequently opened quietly to reveal the solemn, downturned face of his mother stepping into the room. Akamaru let out a small yip in her direction, causing her to glance up at the bed, only to finally notice her son sitting up and awake. Shock transformed into a smile that seemed to light up the whole room before she rushed over to sit on the bedside and embrace her son as gently as she allowed herself in her excitement, tears welling in her eyes.

"Oh, my boy," she sobbed into his shoulder, relieved grin still present on her tear-streaked face. Kiba smiled, holding back tears of his own at Tsume Inuzuka's out of character reaction, lifting his stiff arms to wrap them around his mother's trembling form. She pulled her face from his shoulder, lifting her hands to cup her son's face, gazing at him with a watery smile, "My Kiba."

* * *

When the excitement was over, Kiba looked to the chair at his bedside only to find it empty. A small frown marred his features when he realised that Kankuro was no longer in the room. Neither he nor his mother had realised when the sand-nin had slipped out of the room during their moment; not that his mother even noticed he had been there in the first place. Tsume, finished clearing her face of all tears, turned to notice her son's expression.  
"What are you looking so depressed for, boy?"  
Kiba rolled his eyes, exasperation clearing any traces of 'depression' from his face at his mother's attempt to clear any evidence of the two minutes of emotional weakness she had allowed herself.  
"I'm not depressed," he stated sharply, "More confused. Kankuro was just here, but he must have left after you came in." He glanced slyly in his mother's direction to see her reaction to knowledge of a witness.  
Her eyes narrowed slightly, "Kankuro was here?" she said, her voice sharp, "Why didn't you tell me that before I started blubbering like a child in front of him?!"  
"Well, you didn't exactly give me a chance before you started falling all over yourself, mother," Kiba replied with an irritated edge to his voice.

Before his mother could comment on his supposed insolence, the door opened again to reveal Lady Tsunade, followed closely by Shizune. Tsume straightened up, bowing slightly before the Hokage.  
"So," Tsunade began, drifting over to Kiba's bedside, "a little birdy told me you were awake. How are you feeling, Kiba?"  
'_So, that's where he went,_' Kiba thought to himself, though a little disappointed that Kankuro hadn't come back.  
He took another quick assessment of himself, "Overall I feel okay, Lady Hokage, if a little stiff and weak in places," he started, uncertainly. He began systematically tensing muscles all over his body to test them, wincing slightly when he got to his thigh muscles, "My legs hurt quite a bit, though."  
"Yes, they would," she murmured in reply, before speaking louder again, "Your thighs were very badly burned, and though they are healed, they will still be badly scarred.  
"The pain is probably from the new scar tissue. It'll go after you've walked around a bit, worn it in, somewhat." She continued, providing a full inventory of his injuries.  
As Kiba processed the information, the situation finally began to dawn on him. He knew that shinobi from Sand had been sent in to provide aid, but he realised he hadn't actually asked what happened, or how bad it was. He had known it was bad where he had been, but he didn't know if the attack had been more widespread. Still ignoring the Hokage, he glanced over at the window. Someone, most likely Shizune, had opened the curtains, but from his position, all he could see was a dreary grey sky. Trying to stretch his body slightly to his right to get a glimpse, but the move had obviously pulled at the scar of another new injury. He hissed, settling back down against his pillows.

"If you had been listening to a word I said, Kiba Inuzuka," the Hokage stated, laying a firm hand on the young man's shoulder, "then you would have known not to do that."  
He glanced up at her apologetically, "Sorry, Lady Tsunade, I just wanted to see how bad it is."  
"It's bad, Kiba," she responded, despair creeping onto her features.  
"Bad? Like Pein's attack? Worse?" his voice was going hoarse again.  
"Different, in terms of damage, but extremely extensive" she told him, solemnly, "and definitely worse in terms of casualties."  
Kiba stilled for a moment. Recalling the day of Pein's attack on Konoha was agonising, but the fact that always made it better was knowing that Naruto had essentially convinced Pein to bring everyone back from the dead. There was no Pein with a powerful jutsu to revive everyone this time.  
He took a deep breath, holding back tears as he pictured the busy streets of Konoha that he had been walking through just moments before the attack.  
"How many?" he managed to croak out.  
The Hokage paused for a moment, holding back the despair in her voice as she replied, "We don't have an exact number yet, as we still have critically injured and we're also still searching for others."

He closed his eyes as he took in the information, his breath shuddering in his throat as he tried to control his grief. People always spoke of broken hearts with terms of pain; this feeling was worse than mere pain. This was anguish, excruciating torture and numbness bundled together in a chaotic mess throughout his body. He didn't know how to process the emotions he was feeling, and it sent his mind and body reeling in confusion. His breathing quickened, stuttering on every inhale.  
He vaguely heard the Hokage say something to his mother before hearing the door open, then close a moment later. He felt the air shift next to him as his mother presumably sat in the chair previously occupied by Kankuro before he felt a hand grasp his own, squeezing it tightly. Only then did he let himself release the full extent of his agony.

* * *

**Hi,**

**I'm not really one for writing author's notes, but I felt I had to this time if just to thank everyone who's favourited and followed this story, as well as those of you who left the lovely reviews. I had this chapter half written, but with work and life, etc, I kind of left it hanging a bit, but as soon as I saw those reviews I just had to finish it. So, this one's for you guys.  
So, we've had a lot of Kankuro in the first few chapters, so I figured I'd let you guys have a little insight into Kiba. Keep in mind that this is a fair number of years after the Fourth Shinobi War, so our boys have grown up a bit and are both in their early 20s, so they're not going to be quite as immature as they have been in the past. Kiba's calmed down a bit, obviously, but he's quite a bit more calm in this chapter than I intend him to be later in the story - he did just wake up from being basically comatose for a few days. So, have no fear.**

**I never realised how long Word documents make your chapters feel. I'm like, "Wow, that's quite a number of pages!" then I paste it onto here, and it just feels too short -.-' so, if you see my chapters getting longer, that's why :P I'm actively trying to make them longer. Personally, I love long stories and long chapters, so that's how I'm going to try to do things, but it'll take me some time to get on a roll.**

**On another note, in case anyone wants to know, I got the title of the story from the song Close Your Eyes by Young Love. I've loved it for about 8 years. Go listen to it, if you haven't. It's lovely. :)**

**So, hope you guys enjoyed Chapter 4! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.**


	6. Chapter 5

.

Recovery was a long and arduous process, both for the injured and the village as a whole. The death toll was over a hundred and forty, but there were still a small number of citizens missing. Though a grim thought, most couldn't help but marvel at how few had actually died, considering the extensive damage to the village. The good news was that there were no more expected deaths from the injured – they were all past the critical stages of their recovery. Clearing the debris was time-consuming, particularly with so many injured unable to help.

Kiba scowled in the direction of the hospital entrance from his seat at his sister's bedside, where she was still restricted to bedrest for a major concussion. It had been four days since he had woken, and he still wasn't allowed to leave the hospital. He got about an hour of walking each day, but still had to be assisted and accompanied by someone. Today he was allowed to walk himself to see Hana, with the help of Akamaru as a crutch, and was being escorted by Shino, who was sitting a short distance away eating his lunch.  
"What's that pout for, little brother?" Hana queried, smirking a little as she saw his eye twitch at the teasing.  
"I'm not pouting," he replied through gritted teeth, before he let out a resigned sigh, "I just feel so useless. I want to be _doing_ something, but instead I'm sitting here crippled. Can't even walk to the bathroom in my room without Akamaru to lean on."  
At the sound of his name, Akamaru lifted his head to look at his master, cocking his head to the side in question. Kiba saw this and bent to scratch behind the dog's ears, reassuring him that he was grateful for the help.  
At his words, Hana looked frustrated as she replied to her brother, "You're not a cripple, little brother, how many times do we need to tell you that?" her exasperation showed on her face, but her tone was gentle as she reached up to place her hand on his tense shoulder, "Me and mum feel the same way as you, as does everyone who's stuck in this hospital, I'm sure, but we're not going to be any use until we're healed. Have patience, pup, you'll be up and about in no time. We all will."

Kiba sighed as his sister finished speaking, raising his hand to place it on his sister's with a pained smile, his gaze still fixed on the daylight that shone through the hospital entrance. He could see people, citizens and shinobi alike, making their way back and forth in front of the doorway, some carrying large loads of salvaged goods. He saw others pulling carts of debris, taking it where it could be evaluated for its usefulness in rebuilding. He wanted to be out there. Despite understanding his sister and mother's insistence that he would be soon, he wanted to be out there _now_.  
He heard someone clearing their throat behind him, turning to see Shino standing from his chair.  
"I need to get back to work," he muttered from behind his collar, "and you need to be getting back anyway."  
Hana turned her hand, which still rested on Kiba's shoulder, so it held on to his own hand at an awkward angle. The action had him finally turning his eyes to look at his sister as she said, "Don't worry, brother," she emphasised, "you _will_ get out there."  
He nodded with a small smile that looked more like a grimace, as he placed his right hand on Akamaru's back and Shino took a light hold on his left forearm to help lift himself slowly to his feet. He gently took his arm back from Shino, using it to pat the bug-nin on the shoulder lightly before beginning to limp forward with a small wave in his sister's direction. The pain kept him slow, as the scar tissue stretched and tightened with every movement, on both his legs and side. Shino kept a short distance from him in case he fell or needed more support, but the dog-nin was determined to walk through the pain, so he kept just short of 'hovering' distance. The quiet shinobi marvelled at his friend's unwavering stubbornness as he watched him limping ahead of him, subtly pulling the hospital shorts further down his thighs self-consciously where they had ridden up from sitting. Though Kiba wouldn't admit it out loud, he was incredibly ill at ease with the burn scars. Shino himself had only seen them briefly when helping his friend from his bed, but he noticed whenever the shorts rode up, even slightly, the dog-nin would hasten to pull them down again, even if the damaged flesh wasn't visible.  
He shook his head slightly, hoping that Kiba simply needed to get used to the scarred tissue being there. After slow progress, they finally reached the room, where the dog-nin proceeded to clamber his way onto the bed himself, lightly batting away Shino's hand when he tried to help. He was followed quickly by his nin-dog. Once his friend was settled, Shino made his way to the door, turning slightly to raise his hand to his friend in a small wave. Kiba gave a pained smile in return, half-heartedly lifting his hand in return. Once the door was shut behind his friend, the smile, however small, slipped from Kiba's face as he rolled onto his side, burying his face in Akamaru's fur, unwilling to keep looking at the unchanging scenery of his room.

* * *

Kankuro placed his hands on his knees, panting loudly as his lungs exhaustedly tried to take in more air. He'd been helping other shinobi move the larger pieces of debris using both his chakra strings and puppets. He took a large breath, choking on it which caused him to cough uncontrollably for a minute. A strong pat on his back shocked him out of his fit, and he looked back to see Yamato standing to his left. The older shinobi had been using his earth release and mokuton to help with the larger debris. His breathing was also elevated, but not nearly as much as Kankuro's.  
"I think you've done enough for today," the older man said kindly, "you've been at it non-stop since sunrise."  
Kankuro scoffed lightly with a small smile, "So what? So have you."  
"That's true," Yamato replied, smirking, "though, I also took a couple of breaks, and I'm also older than you and have more chakra reserves."  
"You're right," Kankuro seemingly conceded with a small sigh, "you _are_ older."  
Yamato scowled, and began to ruffle the cheeky sand-nin's headwear when he heard a shuffling of feet coming in their direction. He glanced up to see Iruka-sensei, along with a few academy students, carrying trays of water in their direction. The rest of Kankuro and Yamato's group noticed, all stopping their work to have some water, smiling in gratitude and ruffling the youngsters' hair.  
Iruka made his way over to the leftover pair with a small smile, "You guys are making progress, I see."  
"Yeah," Kankuro replied, exhaustion clear in his voice, "it's hard going though."  
Iruka chuckled, "I can see that," he sighed, glancing around the area, "it looks like it's going well, though. The students wanted to do something to help, and I had them come up with a few ideas, and this was one of them."  
"Well, it's greatly appreciated, I can tell you that," Yamato replied, graciously, before his tone changed, "any news?"  
Iruka's smile faded, "No," he replied grimly, "they should have been back two days ago. I mean, I know Kakashi's late for most things, but never when it's important."

The concern was clear on the teacher's face, so Yamato smiled slightly, placing a comforting hand on the distraught chuunin's shoulder, "He'll be fine, Iruka, they all will" he stated with certainty, "he's never let us down before."  
The man smiled gratefully in response, "I suppose you're right. I shouldn't be thinking the worst when I don't know anything. They probably just got held up somewhere on the way back. Wouldn't be the first time."  
Yamato chuckled slightly, nodding in agreement, before changing the subject, "Hey, are you guys heading back to the village centre?" he asked out of the blue. Kankuro had a feeling he knew what the question was for, and shot the mokuton user a hard glare.  
"Yeah," Iruka replied, questioningly, noticing the dirty look Kankuro was giving Yamato, "you guys were the furthest group, so we're heading back now. Why?"  
"Well," Yamato started, ignoring the daggers being glared into the side of his head, "Kankuro here has earned the rest of the day off, so I'd appreciate it if you made sure he made it to the cafeteria to eat something without getting _side-tracked_ by any more hard labour on the way," he said pleasantly.  
"I'm fine, old man!" Kankuro interjected heatedly, "it's not like it's that long until sundown, we'll have to stop soon anyway!"  
"Maybe so, but you're almost out of chakra and you haven't had a break, let alone eaten something, since you got here at sunrise," Yamato replied calmly, before continuing with the creepiest face the sand-sibling had seen since his brother's homicidal phase, "and you keep calling me old, and I'll kick your ass into the next decade, then we'll see who's old."  
Kankuro gulped audibly, while Iruka looked on in amusement.  
"Sure," the teacher interrupted, the laughter apparent in his tone, "I'll make sure he gets something to eat. I think it's about time the kids got some dinner, anyway."  
He turned to call to the children that were talking animatedly to the other shinobi. They ran over to their sensei immediately, waving dramatically at the others as they moved off, Iruka in the lead. Kankuro stood stubbornly, before Iruka-sensei turned his head slightly, meeting the sand-nin's eye. The authority in that look got Kankuro moving, however reluctantly, as he shuffled along behind the children and their teacher, griping away under his breath.

* * *

Kiba poked his head out of his room through the slightly ajar door. He glanced up and down the corridor, checking for any signs of movement. It wasn't too late, but the village had quietened down with the darkness, and he wanted to take the opportunity. He felt his recovery was too slow. In his mind, he'd surely recover quicker if he got more walking practice in? People kept telling him that he'd be up and about on his own in no time, but no one mentioned the amount of time it'd take to get his shinobi training back up to scratch. He'd brought it up before, but he just got passive remarks on how he'd 'be fine'. It didn't inspire much confidence on how long he would be off missions.

He felt a nip on his wrist, and turned back into the room where Akamaru was gazing at him with a mixture of concern and disapproval in his eyes.  
Kiba sighed at the look, "I know, Akamaru, okay, but I'm never going to get better if I don't get more walking in," he told the dog, the frustration clear in his voice as he glanced back out into the corridor, ignoring his friend's exasperated groan, "one measly hour a day isn't doing me any good."  
Seeing that no one was around to stop him, he edged the door open more, standing in the doorway, supported on the doorjamb. He turned back to his dog, jerking his head so he would move into position. Reluctantly, the nin-dog did so, coming to his master's side so the man could swap the support of the door frame for his usual furry crutch.  
Inching out into the hallway, Kiba kept his eyes and ears open for the sounds of anyone approaching. Continuing to hear nothing, he quietly closed the door behind him, heading in the direction of a nearby fire exit, which exited at the back of the building. He edged the handle of the door down, hearing a light click of the bolt, before slowly pushing it open. Another quick glance around and he was home free. Before leaving he locked the bolt open so he could get back in after his walk before beginning his slow hobble towards some nearby trees that hadn't been demolished. As he entered the wooded area, a light breeze rustled through the leaves; he took a moment to feel pride in his stealth, mentally patting himself on the back for not getting caught. His lack of attention to his surroundings had him trip on a tree root. Stumbling forward, he found he couldn't find his footing, and his hand had slipped away from Akamaru in his fall. He found the ground coming closer to his face, and screwed his eyes shut, bracing for the impact when he abruptly came to a stop. Cracking his eyes open, he took in his surroundings. He was at a fifty degree angle to the ground, and he could see Akamaru looking in his general direction, his head tilted to the side and tail wagging. That was when he felt the presence behind him, as well as the two hands that were gripped to his upper arms. He was then pulled upright, the hands keeping a tight hold on his now stiff form. He felt the presence move closer to him, stopping right beside his left ear, their chin brushing the fabric on his shoulder and something ruffling through his own chaotic hair. He could feel their breath warming the skin of his ear.

"And where, exactly, do you think you're off to?"

* * *

.

**Dun, dun, dun. Who could it be?**

**I know, I know, it's been a wee while. Like, two weeks-ish. Sincere apologies to anyone (if anyone) who was waiting for an update.**

**I do have some reasons: It was my birthday last week, so I was celebrating/recovering all weekend, then I had work, and I got ill at work on Tuesday and have been off work with the flu since then, dying in bed.**

**That's not the main reason, though. Simply put, I didn't know what to write. If anyone remembers my first author's note, you may recall that I mentioned that I wasn't entirely sure where I was going with this story. I've never been a planner when it comes to stories and essays and such. Never have been, never will be, probably. I basically had the beginning (kind of) mapped out in my head, but after that, not much.  
So, this is all just off the top of my head from now on, pretty much. Hopefully this way of writing won't take from the story in any way. I have been writing it down in a Word document, and I go back and check my facts, etc, quite a lot to avoid continuity errors. If you notice anything I've missed, let me know, especially this week. My head is just mush.  
Which is also why this chapter is rather short, after I stated in the last one that I was going to try and make them longer. Boo me.**

**I'm not particularly happy with this chapter, as I feel I've missed a lot of description, but when I tried to go through it to find places to squeeze it in, it never really worked in my head, so I left it. Ah well, maybe next time. (Y)**


	7. Chapter 6

.

Iruka took his assigned job of making sure the sand ninja ate very seriously. He had escorted Kankuro to the queue in the makeshift food hall before proceeding to join him for dinner, giving him _that_ look any time he stopped eating for more than five seconds. Kankuro continued to shovel food into his mouth with little more resistance than giving the teacher a glare every once in a while. Iruka choked on his ramen when he saw the sand-nin glaring at him with his mouth full of noodles, and struggled to swallow the food before he allowed the laughter to escape.

"Oh, stop with the withering glances, Kankuro," he chided around his continued chuckles, "it's not particularly intimidating coming from someone with noodles stored in his cheeks."  
Kankuro immediately swallowed his food, a light blush reaching his ears, before he scowled in no particular direction, so long as it wasn't at Iruka, and said nothing.

Iruka gasped sarcastically, "Not the silent treatment! Whatever shall I do?" he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, holding his head lightly on his entwined fingers as he looked across the table at the grumpy puppeteer with a smirk, "you know, you would get along great with my Genin; you certainly have a lot in common with them."

Kankuro let out a small growl, before sighing and glancing down at his empty bowl. He had to admit, he must have been hungry to have finished the large bowl of ramen. He hadn't even noticed as he'd been working all day. His mind had been completely preoccupied with everything that had occurred over the last week or so – the attack, the horror of the destruction, the countless wounded and numerous dead, Kiba. The latter seemed to dwell on his thoughts the most, probably because it was the one topic that he could not figure out. He didn't know why it bothered him.

"-uro? Hello?"  
Kankuro jerked his head up, focussing again on the Chunin sitting opposite him, realising that he had been speaking to him.  
"Huh?"  
Iruka sighed, the vein on his forehead twitching slightly before disappearing, as he calmed his irritation.  
"I was asking if you wanted to go for a walk," he repeated, slightly slower and louder, not wanting the sand-nin to miss it again, "it's a nice night. I've not had much time away from the kids this last week, but I don't really want to be alone, either."  
He trailed off, scratching lightly at the scar that passed over his nose, as though trying to cover the anguish in his voice. Kankuro regarded the Chunin thoughtfully, remembering the conversation between the teacher and Yamato earlier on. Though Iruka hadn't said it outright, it was clear to Kankuro that there was more than mere friendship between the teacher and Kakashi Hatake. As they had spoken on the walk to the food hall, as well as throughout dinner, it seemed that the poor Chunin couldn't help but mention the masked Jounin in almost every one of his stories, even if the man hadn't been present; he would just mention what the copy-nin's response to the story had been when he'd been told. It was obvious the teacher's mind was preoccupied with worry – not only for Kakashi, but for Naruto as well. He wasn't entirely sure if he worried about Sasuke, but he'd leave that can of worms for a different time. His thoughts were abruptly interrupted yet again.

"It's okay if you don't want to," the Chunin stuttered out, his character morphing completely from how he'd been all evening, "I mean, I'm sure you're very tired, and –"  
"Sure, Iruka-sensei," Kankuro interjected gently with a small smirk, "a walk would be good."  
Iruka's face reddened slightly, before he nodded, "Right," he stated, his teacher's attitude returned, "Let's be off then."  
Kankuro watched in befuddled amusement at the teacher's strut towards the edge of the huge pagoda, before standing himself, jogging to catch up and walk alongside the embarrassed Chunin. They walked in silence, for the most part, each lost in their own thoughts. It wasn't awkward, though. It was peaceful, Kankuro thought. Wandering aimlessly, not sure whose direction they were following. When they finally looked around at their surroundings, they realised they had ended up near the hospital. Kankuro almost kicked himself for ending up here again, as he still hadn't figured out his reasoning for ending up here the other night either. They were round the side of what was left of the old building. They could just about see the trees that were clustered behind the main hospital building, more and more coming into view as they kept walking forward. As they rounded the corner that led to the back of the building, they froze in their tracks.

Ahead of them, about thirty feet from the back entrance of the hospital, stood five figures. One of the figures was being held menacingly close from behind by the tallest of the five as he struggled to free himself. Two of the other figures stood slightly behind and to the side; one, the taller of the two, stood completely still, arms appearing crossed over his chest, while the shorter one's body shook and jerked as it stood there hunched over, one hand covering the mouth, the other arm curled round his stomach. He could only assume the figure was laughing. The fifth figure is what made Kankuro's breath catch in his throat. Clearly, fur contrasting the inky darkness of the wooded area, stood a huge white dog, and this gave Kankuro a clear impression of who the figure being held was.  
He felt anger rise up in his chest as his mind rejected everything that was occurring in front of him. Why was Kiba out here when he was injured? Who were these others, and were they a threat? He prepared to attack, but before he had the chance, he saw a flash of movement from his side, as Iruka darted forward towards the group. Assuming the Chunin was attacking as he himself had planned, he followed quickly, watching as the figure holding the dog-nin let go, causing the former captive to stumble, and spun around to face the charging teacher.

* * *

Kiba's frozen demeanour vanished the second he heard the sniggering coming from somewhere behind his captor and his face fell into an angry scowl. He would recognise that dorky laugh anywhere, and he immediately felt like an idiot as he realised he actually recognised the voice of the one holding him.  
"Damn it," he growled, struggling to free his arms, "Let me go, already."  
He was released, but not because he'd requested it. From somewhere behind them and to the left came the barely audible sound of feet running on ground – more than one set. His arms fell free, and he stumbled slightly. Luckily, Akamaru quickly jumped forward to stop his master's fall, and he turned just in time to see a bundle of clothes and brown hair throw themselves at his former captor, knocking the wind out of the tall man as they both fell to the ground. The other running figure had ground to a halt, confusion etched between painted lines. Mumbled, unintelligible words reached his sensitive ears, and he glanced back at the grounded pair.

"Sorry," the tall man spoke, the smile evident in his voice, "I didn't quite catch that."

The other man lifted his head away from its nest in the crook of the other's neck, revealing the scarred, tanned face of Iruka-sensei. The shorter man sat up slightly on his knees, lifting his hands to the edge of the mask that covered the other's face.

"I said," he abruptly pulled the mask down slightly his own head covering the grounded nin's face, giving him the most passionate kiss that Kiba had ever witnessed. He then pulled back slightly, tears running down his face as he ran his fingers through soft silver hair. He gazed into the man's smirking, yet soft, grey eyes before finally finishing his sentence with a watery smile, "You are such a bastard for making me worry like that, Kakashi Hatake."

* * *

Kankuro was frozen in shock upon seeing Iruka attack the tall man, though it wasn't quite the attack he'd been expecting. His confusion cleared when he quickly glanced up at the two others involved. As soon as the bright blonde hair entered his vision, the puzzle in his mind was complete. Thinking back on it, he felt a bit stupid for panicking so much about the situation before he knew all of the facts. Then again, he consoled himself, everyone was a bit on edge that week. He turned away from the sniggering Naruto and his surly companion. Pointedly ignoring the reunited couple, he turned to the tired looking Inuzuka standing a few feet away from him, leaning back on his dog. Kankuro felt a touch of irritation overcome his relief, and he stormed over to the dog-nin, stopping right before their faces collided.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out here?!"  
Kiba flinched slightly at the harshness in the sand-nin's voice, before schooling his face to a neutral mask.  
"I went for a walk," he stated casually, looking up slightly, directly into Kankuro's eyes.  
Kankuro face became a frustrated shade of red, "A walk. You went for a walk," he replied through gritted teeth, "You can barely _stand_, let alone _walk_."  
"Don't be an idiot, Kankuro," Kiba growled back scathingly, "I've been walking for three days."  
"Yeah, walking for three days – with an escort, for an hour at a time and _only within the hospital_."  
"I don't need to be escorted!"

A quiet, yet commanding, voice interjected, "You would have fallen flat on your face if Kakashi hadn't caught you."  
Kiba glared daggers at Sasuke's bored looking face, "No one asked your opinion, _Uchiha_."  
"It wasn't an opinion, dog-boy" the Uchiha's gloomy expression changing with the appearance of an arrogant smirk, "it was a fact."  
"That's enough!" Iruka-sensei interrupted just before Kiba could respond. All three stopped arguing, and Naruto stopped sniggering.  
Walking over to the flushed dog-nin, lightly pulling a silenced Kankuro out of the way, the teacher placed his hands on his shoulders, trying to catch the young Inuzuka's dodging eyes, "Look," he stated gently, "I know it's stressful. You're restless; you've never been one to sit down for days on end. I also know you're anxious to get back to training," he paused, only to force Kiba's eyes to meet his own, "but you are not going to be doing yourself any favours if you over-exert yourself and end up more hurt. The scar tissue is not fully healed, and your body is still weak, despite your stubbornness. You're never going to go back to training if you keep pushing yourself further than you should."  
Kiba's ground his teeth together, before he sighed in defeat, lowering his eyes to his feet, "I'm sorry," his voice echoed his frustration at the situation, "I've just been so worried. I keep thinking the longer I can't walk, the more likely it is that I'll be stuck like this – a useless cripple. Being a shinobi is my life, and I can't see myself doing anything else. I don't know what I'd do."  
Tears began to gather in his eyes, but he wouldn't let them fall, refusing to humiliate himself like that in front of his friends.

Kankuro's gaze softened at those words. He could understand the worry. For many shinobi, their job was their life, and being disabled in such a way was not an option in their work. A ninja needed his legs.  
Iruka smiled encouragingly at the young man before him, "Kiba, you will not be stuck like this. Look at you, a week of being injured and you think you're crippled for life," he joked, causing the dog-nin to blush lightly, "Tsunade would have told you if there was a possibility that your legs wouldn't fully heal, but she didn't. She just wants you to take your time, so you don't overdo it and hurt yourself more. I know it's boring, but the medics know best, and our Hokage is the best of them all, so you listen to her opinion."  
Kiba glanced up again at his teacher's smiling face, and couldn't help a small, watery smile from appearing on his own.  
"Thanks, Iruka-sensei," he said quietly, "I needed to hear that."  
He began to walk back in the direction of the hospital, but before he got five feet, his collar was snatched from behind, and he was pulled back into a chest. With a blush he turned his head and saw the grinning face of Kankuro just behind his shoulder.

"And where, exactly, do you think you're off to on your own?"

Naruto couldn't help but burst out laughing all over again.

* * *

The door of the hospital was eased open, a painted face peering through the gap. Once acknowledging that the coast was clear, the door opened fully, revealing the slightly shorter figure next to him. Kiba's arm was wrapped around Kankuro's shoulders, while the sand-nin's was wrapped around his waist, trying to keep as much weight off Kiba's legs as possible. They slowly edged their way into the small alcove of a corridor, revealing Akamaru behind them, and quietly closing the door behind the three of them, before shuffling forward towards the larger hallway. Peering round the corner again, and seeing nothing, they hobbled as quickly as they could towards Kiba's room, hurriedly entering and closing the door.  
Heaving Kiba across the room, Kankuro deposited him on the bed, while Akamaru jumped up to take his place on the end of it. Once the dog-nin was seated comfortably, the puppet master sat on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his left hand and turning his head to face Kiba.  
"See," he started jovially, "isn't this a lot more comfortable than stumbling about the woods?"  
Kiba scowled in response, not gracing the question with an answer.  
Kankuro's smile turned down before he continued, "Seriously though, pup," he said in a low voice, "listen to Tsunade and get better. No one wants you to be stuck here forever."  
Sighing, the dog-nin finally spoke, "I know, I know. It's just so frustrating being stuck in here," he said dejectedly, "everyone's out there doing things while I'm lying around in bed being useless."  
"You're not the only one injured, you know," Kankuro quickly replied, "There's a lot of people, your mother and sister included, who can't help because of their injuries. No one's going to blame you for that; the only one who's going to blame you is yourself." The sand-nin's voice had a strange tone, mixing scolding with a touch of sympathy.

The Inuzuka rubbed his hands over his face as he sighed in defeat. He couldn't argue with Kankuro's statement, but it still didn't make him feel any less useless. He wanted to be doing something. Worrying about his ability to continue his work as a shinobi of the Leaf was all he could do while sitting in a bed all day with only Akamaru for company. All of his friends rarely had a chance to visit because they were all working so hard to help the village. Groaning slightly into his hands, he decided not to argue with the sand-nin. After dropping his hands to his sides, he paused. His left hand had landed next to Kankuro's, the skin just barely touching, but it felt almost magnetic. They both stared at the hands for no more than a moment, before awkwardly pulling them apart, Kiba's resting lightly on his torso as he absently gazed out the window. The sand-nin sat up with his back rigid, no longer using his arms for support, and held his hands in his lap, looking at them through glazed eyes.  
The two shinobi sat in silence for a minute, before Kankuro finally cleared his head enough to cough uneasily, gaining the dog-nin's attention.  
"So," he trailed off briefly, "I guess I should be going. I'm quite tired now," he rushed out.  
"Yeah," Kiba murmured quietly in response. Silence overtook them again, as neither moved a muscle.  
"Yeah," Kankuro's said eventually, "so, I'll see you later, I guess."

The sand sibling stood up finally, trying to figure out how to leave without making the situation more uncomfortable. Ultimately, he decided to say nothing. He stiffly walked towards the door, reaching out for the door handle. He hesitated. He wasn't entirely sure why, but he was hoping Kiba would say something where he couldn't. The silence continued, so he pulled the handle down, opening the door dejectedly. He sighed lightly as he made his way through the doorway.

"Uh," Kankuro paused immediately, turning his head to face the bed-ridden dog-nin, waiting for him to continue. The sudden turn caught Kiba off guard, and he blushed brightly as he struggled to find the words before he finished with, "come back to see me sometime, okay?"  
Kankuro shot him a small smile and a nod, before he quietly closed the door behind him, leaving the flustered Inuzuka to his confused thoughts.

* * *

**Boom.**

**So, sorry about the wait... again. Life and all that jazz.  
I wasn't entirely sure about this chapter, but there ya go.  
I know some of you were expecting Kankuro for the cliffhanger, and I hope you weren't too disappointed if that's the case. D:  
The thing with cliffhanger endings, especially if you're just sort of making stuff up as you go, is that you have the power to change things however you want. Originally, when I wrote the cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 5, it was intended to be Kankuro. But almost as soon as I wrote it, I was unsure, because it seemed almost too predictable. Then when I thought about it, there were a few options I had for who it could be, but this was the option I chose in the end. So, again, sorry if I disappointed anyone. xD**


	8. Chapter 7

.

The silence in the room was deafening. The returning team had finally seen the full extent of the damage done to their village, and it had been devastating for them. Naruto had let a few tears fall, but since had been unusually quiet, his face holding an expression of eerie calm. Similarly, Kakashi had shown almost none of his feelings, though he hadn't let Iruka more than two feet from his side until they got called in to see Tsunade. Even Sasuke, commonly dubbed 'the ice prince' by his blonde friend, had looked shell-shocked for more than a moment, followed by a regular tightening of the corners of his eyes, as though he was actively preventing any emotions from showing on his features.

The Hokage sat at the desk in her temporary office in the hospital, her elbows resting on the desktop and her head held up by her interlocked fingers, silently observing the unnaturally quiet trio. Her eyes flickered between the dark haired Uchiha leaning stiffly against the wall by the door, his dark eyes glaring at the floor, to the blonde Jinchuriki standing perfectly still slightly to the right of her desk with his hands folded professionally behind his back and finally her eyes would fall on the silver-haired ANBU by the window, his one visible eye staring absently at what little was left of his home.  
She sighed quietly after a few minutes, gently closing her eyes. She had just heard a stiff report of their mission from a heavily distracted copy-nin. It had seemingly been going fine until the journey back. As Kakashi had put it, they had run into 'a small delay' when they had run almost directly into a group of unknown shinobi, who apparently took one look at them before they attacked. They had disposed of a few, sustaining injuries themselves, before the enemy clearly decided they had lost enough ninja and retreated; but not before one had thrown an exploding tag that had emitted a huge flash of bright light. This had temporarily blinded them, which itself would have cost them a day's worth of travel but that on top of any injuries that had impeded their movement had cost them another day. The enemy had escaped.

"Well," she started, glancing at each of them to see the slight movement of their eyes suggesting she had their attention, before continuing, "from the descriptions you gave of your attackers, and the descriptions given by those who engaged the enemies here, you may have accidentally stumbled across some of the very same people responsible for the attack on Konoha."  
She heard Naruto inhale sharply at her words, and saw his eyes had widened a fraction. She could practically hear the thoughts bouncing around his head, so she continued.  
"I don't want you to go blaming yourselves," she paused, waiting for Naruto's eyes to turn to her so he could really take in her words, but they didn't.  
"Naruto, look at me," she said more sharply, causing his eyes to shoot to her own. She addressed them all again, but her eyes never left the young blonde's, "I don't want you blaming yourselves for not capturing or following any, or for not killing them all.  
"If you had killed them, it wouldn't have made any difference at all; the village would still be rubble and we wouldn't know any more. Capturing them or following them would have been useful, but then there would have been more of a possibility of losing three of my best shinobi. You were tired from your mission, worried for your friends and loved ones, and besides that, most importantly you didn't know they were the one's responsible for this," she finished firmly, before staring more potently at Naruto, "Understood?"  
The young Jinchuriki paused before nodding hesitantly, his eyes slightly less guilt-ridden. She then swivelled her eyes to look harshly at Sasuke and Kakashi in turn, waiting for their responses. Quiet words of agreement were heard, but it was enough.  
She sighed heavily again, "At least we know which direction they were heading in, but we need to get the village up and running a bit more before we come up with some sort of strategy," she stated, lifting her head off her hands and looking straight ahead as she continued, "we also have the added benefit of help from other villages; Cloud, Mist and Sand have all sent shinobi to our village to aid in recovery efforts, and we just heard from Stone the other day, the Tsuchikage stating that he sent ninja on reconnaissance missions in order to help find any trace of who could be behind this as soon as he heard; the other villages, as well as our own, are also planning the same.

"We have the shinobi of five Hidden Villages and a mountain of fury on our side," her eyes shone with determination, and her voice chilled them to the bone, "those assholes will regret the day they even _dreamed_ about setting foot near my village, and they will pay dearly for what they've done."

* * *

It had been three days since a certain sand-nin had said he'd come back, and he still hadn't. Kiba wasn't sure why it bothered him so much, but it was beginning to show. The look of anticipation turned disappointment confused his friends every time they opened the door to visit the injured dog-nin. After a lot of hassle and haggling, the medics had hesitantly allowed him to walk when he wanted, so long as he promised to stick to walking within the hospital and to rest when it became painful. He also forced himself to agree to the term that he was required to keep Akamaru with him at all times and lean on him when walking, but he managed to convince them that he didn't always need to have another escort.

Walking was getting easier by the day, but he was still rather stiff. He was rather pleased with his progress over the last couple of days, though. After having some sense knocked back into him by Iruka and Kankuro, he compensated for his longer walking time by having more breaks during his walks, which ultimately seemed to be helping, rather than his previous strategy of hobbling through the pain. By the time he'd finished irritating and amusing the hospital staff during his walks, he would be exhausted and relished going to lie in his bed, which ended up feeling ten times comfier due to his fatigue.

The rebuilding process was beginning out in the village, and no matter how much he wanted to be out there, he knew he wouldn't be any use in his current state, so he realised there wasn't any use complaining. His friends were ecstatic when they found he had stopped moping about being stuck in the hospital, glad to see his true smile shine through, as well as the return of his mischievous and playful attitude when he went to bother the hospital staff during his outings.

Despite this, he still didn't smile all the time. When he changed his clothes or showered, his happiness would fade at the sight of his legs. Scarred beyond belief, he could barely bring himself to look at them, let alone letting anyone, other than a few medics, see them. Kiba had never understood before, why people got self-conscious about their looks, particularly scars. He had seen Iruka-sensei awkwardly scratch at his scar when they, as genin, had asked him about it. He could remember seeing others do similar things – wanting to cover their scars when they were mentioned, or if people looked at them for too long or a certain way. He'd seen it, but he hadn't understood. Now that he thought about it, he still didn't understand. Their scars were fine, normal even, especially for a shinobi; for some, they even accentuated their features, like Iruka's.  
Looking at his own scars, though, made his stomach drop. His thighs were covered in extensive and uneven scar tissue, ranging from colours of off-white to red to some more tanned areas – the product of third-degree burns. It didn't look normal. He knew it didn't. He had refused to have anyone but the first medics he'd had, including Tsunade and Shizune, look at the scars ever since he'd seen the face a nurse pulled when she had first seen them to check them over. She had schooled her expression quickly, but he had seen the disgust on her face. He hadn't really seen them himself for more than half a second before that point, not really seeing a point in examining them, but once he did, he understood her revulsion. The scar on his side he could handle, the marks left from the healed lesions on his arm were bearable, but the way his thighs looked was repulsive.

He hadn't explicitly told anyone of his insecurities, other than telling the hospital staff that he only wanted specific medics to work with him. They were used to seeing them, as they'd operated on them and handled their recovery. They could hide their disgust under the surface as they were expecting it.  
He was inevitably getting more anxious about them every time he looked. He even got the nurses to bring him longer shorts, and yet he still fiddled with them and pulled them further down his legs when anyone was around. He put on a grin and tried to forget about it when his friends were around, but ultimately it was always at the back of his mind.  
He couldn't help but think of the future. What if he never found the courage to let anyone see them? It could make for awkward situations with friends and potential significant others, should he be so lucky. The more he thought about it, the more distressed he got about them, and with his unwillingness to show anyone but medical professionals or talk to anyone about it at all, he had no one to convince him otherwise.

* * *

Kankuro stood silently, conflicting feelings bombarding his every thought as he leaned against a crumbling wall staring at the building in front of him. The sand-nin let out a quiet snort of amusement at his cowardice. He'd told the dog-nin he would come back to see him, but it had been five days since then, and though he'd stopped by after he'd finished working every day since, he had yet to set foot inside the building. It wasn't that he didn't want to visit Kiba, but he wasn't sure what to say. Their last encounter had ended rather awkwardly for reasons he couldn't even bring himself to deal with yet.

He glanced at his feet, one foot slightly tensed and raised, as if preparing to start walking. Apparently his body had more tenacity than his brain. Every day his resolve to go in got stronger, but every day he would decide that wasn't enough, and that he'd come back another day. Lifting his head again to look at the building in front of him, he couldn't help but think it had never looked this daunting before this week. He sighed.

"Maybe tomorrow," he murmured to himself. He straightened his back, turning to the left and began walking along the wall. Just as he turned to walk towards the food tent, someone grabbed his arm, pulling him back slightly.  
"I don't think so," a voice stated loudly from his right. He didn't need to look to know his brother's obnoxiously loud best friend. It wasn't Naruto that was holding his arm though.  
"Get the hell off me, Uchiha," he huffed, yanking his arm from the sullen man's grip, "what are you even doing helping this crack-pot with his schemes?"  
"Hn," came the vague reply.  
"Oh, I threatened him," Naruto bragged, arrogance almost visible in his aura, before what had been said finally sunk in, and his arrogance turned to irritation, "crack-pot?!"  
"You're an idiot," Sasuke told the blonde calmly.  
"Hey, bastard" Naruto retorted smugly, "Don't forget what we talked about."  
"Hn."

Running his hand down his face, Kankuro groaned with impatience. He stepped forward, turning around to face the two shinobi.  
"What do you want?" he stated slowly and loudly, trying to speak over the still ranting Jinchuriki.  
"Huh?" came Naruto's absent reply, "Oh! Yeah, don't think we're going to let you walk away that easily, Kankuro."  
Sasuke sighed, looking emotionless as ever, "don't drag me into this, dumbass."  
Naruto ignored him, continuing to address the confused sand-nin "We've seen you standing there every day, but you never go in."  
Kankuro's face paled slightly, understanding forming on his face. He stayed silent, shifting backwards slightly, hoping to avoid the notice of the rambling blonde.  
"You're not going to avoid seeing Kiba anymore! I know that's what you're doing; I don't know what happened between you two, I mean, you were fine the other night, then suddenly it's the next day and you're not fine! What the hell!"  
"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke murmured, noticing the sand-nin's subtle retreat and moving forward grab the man's shoulder harshly, "come on."  
Being dragged along by the quiet Uchiha towards the hospital entrance, Naruto stumbling along behind shouting obscenities at the stoic man, Kankuro couldn't help but wonder.

"What the hell did he even threaten you with to get you to go along with this?" he asked, tilting his head to look at the younger as they passed through the entrance to the temporary hospital wing.  
Sasuke scowled at the question, before grunting a quiet, "You don't want to know."

* * *

**Heyho,**

**So, the last chapter didn't gather much interest, pretty sure I even lost a favourite. Whether that had anything to do with the chapter, I don't know, but hey. ¬.¬ honestly, I was expecting it, I wasn't too chuffed with it myself. **

**Saying that, I'm not too confident about this one either. Not much dialogue happening here. Hopefully, it'll start getting better when the plot does... Hopefully.  
As you can see, I ventured away from Kankuro and Kiba for a wee bit. As it's a third person perspective, I like using the freedom to hop from place to place in the story without having to drag specific characters into that situation or endless POV changes. It's just my opinion, but I can't help but feel that constantly having to tell the reader whose POV they're reading kind of takes away from the story. That's why I decided on third person for this story. I think for first person, the plot has to revolve around one or two characters. Even if that were the case, I don't think I'd do it often, as it's very restrictive. Not that any of you want my reasons for writing this in third person.**

Ah well, thanks for those of you who reviewed ^.^


	9. Chapter 8

.

Kiba glanced up from pulling on the top half of a clean set of pyjamas the hospital had provided for him when he heard a commotion coming from further down the hall. In his peripheral vision he could see that Akamaru had raised his head from where it had rested on his paws and was gazing at the door expectantly, ears raised and twitching and his tail started shifting slowly from side to side in anticipation. Listening intently, the dog-nin tried to figure out what he was hearing. He could make out at least two sets of heavy footsteps and the sound of something being dragged along the floor, coupled with the subdued yelling of familiar voices.

"_Would you stop struggling!_" a loud and irritated voice cried out.  
"_Maybe I would if you'd get the hell off me,_" a second, disjointed voice replied breathlessly, through what sounded like gritted teeth.  
"_Maybe _we _would if you would just go see him yourself!_"

Realisation dawned on him as he recognised the voices rapidly approaching his door, and the now flushed Inuzuka immediately pulled on the rest of the clothes, making sure the shorts provided enough coverage before limping towards his bed to perch on the edge of it, awaiting the inevitable. He tried to force himself to calm so as to lessen the redness he could feel on his cheeks as he self-consciously pulled at the sides of his shorts, eventually just yanking part of the blanket from where it had been tucked under his mattress and pulling the stiff material over his bottom half.

Eyes drawn to the entrance expectantly, he listened to the arguing echo closer until shadows could be seen coming to a stop from the slight gap under his door. He watched with bated breath as the handle turned and the door pushed open.

"Hey, dog-breath," the brash blonde exclaimed as he strutted into the room, casually dragging a ruffled looking Kankuro, who was in turn being pushed lightly from behind by a seething Uchiha. Naruto finally glanced around the room, spotting the Inuzuka sitting on the bed looking slightly shell-shocked with his bed covers wrapped haphazardly around his legs.  
"Oh, sorry, man," he stated, rubbing awkwardly at the back of his neck, "were you getting changed or something? We could come back later if you want."

"No, I was done," the dog-nin mumbled with a blush, "but why are you here?"  
"We came to visit you, of course!" the Jinchuriki explained all too cheerfully, "and look who we ran into on the way here," he gritted out, emphasising his statement by dragging Kankuro by the back of his neck to stand at his side, "what a coincidence, right? He was just on his way here anyway; _isn't that right, Kankuro?_"

Kiba watched curiously as the sand-nin's ears reddened significantly when he addressed the young Jounin with a mumbled, "Hey, Kiba."  
"Hi," he murmured back awkwardly, beginning to feel flustered.  
There was a prolonged silence for a few seconds, before the bouncy blonde shattered the peace with his impossibly loud vocals.

"Well, look at the time," he proclaimed quickly and over-dramatically, "Me and Sasuke are due for patrol in ten minutes, so we'd better go, have fun. Bye!"  
He turned abruptly after a short wave, pulling a disgruntled and increasingly irritated Sasuke back out the door, slamming it shut behind them before the two left behind heard a muffled strike and a cry of pain from outside. Naruto's shouting could be heard for a few more seconds as he ran down the hall after the presumably scowling Uchiha. Once the echoes of his voice could no longer be heard, the silence in the room became more pronounced. Kiba pointedly avoided looking in Kankuro's direction as he tried to figure out what to say. Not that the sand-nin was offering up any conversation starters either.

Kiba gazed awkwardly at his intertwined hands sitting lightly on his lap, only one coherent thought manifesting in his troubled mind.

"_This is going well_."

* * *

"_This is going so well,_" sarcasm leaked heavily through Kankuro's thoughts as he tried to come up with something, anything, to say without making the situation more awkward than it inevitably was. In his peripheral vision he could see Kiba staring avidly at his hands that sat on a blanketed lap, the only movement coming from his occasionally twiddling thumbs. The sand-nin himself was staring at the window directly ahead of him from where he'd moved to lean against the frame of the door, one foot propped up against the wall and his arms crossed over his chest. He saw nothing through the open window, as his senses were all too focussed on the palpable tension in the room. Any noise that filtered in from outside the room was muted, overpowered by the seemingly deafening sound of their quiet breathing and the rustle of shifting blankets whenever Kiba shifted his weight on the bed.

"Are you cold?" he asked awkwardly, barely aware that his brain had decided to speak for him. The sudden question caused Kiba to jump slightly in surprise, before a look of confusion crossed his features, aiming his unspoken question at the sand-nin.  
Kankuro unfolded his arms, gesturing slightly to the blanket covering the dog-nin's legs, "I could close the window if you're cold," he suggested clumsily, bringing one of his hands up to rub at his neck, bringing his elevated foot to the floor in preparation to cross the room. A look of understanding appeared on the Inuzuka's face and he raised one of his own hands, signalling for the other to stop.

"Uh, no, I'm fine," he stuttered out, "thanks for the offer, but I'm not cold."  
Kankuro raised his eyebrow slightly, "Then why the blanket?"  
At this, the dog-nin glanced down at his covered legs, shifting them uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the taller male, before he spoke,  
"It's more comfortable," he stated with a finality that had Kankuro's other eyebrow raising to join its counterpart, his expression showing his slight disbelief at the excuse. It appeared to be only a half truth in his eyes, but looking at how uneasy Kiba looked in that moment, he couldn't bring himself to call the younger shinobi out on that fact.  
Humming noncommittally, he realised that the silence had returned. Mentally cursing himself, he began sifting through his scattered thoughts looking for a topic, but was interrupted.

"So, how's the clean-up going?" the quiet of the question took him off guard coming from the usually boisterous dog-nin, but he quickly gathered his thoughts and he began enthusiastically explaining the rebuilding process in detail, silently thanking the Inuzuka for breaking the tension.  
Though Kankuro did most of the talking at first, Kiba did have his own quiet inputs every so often, mostly questions concerning things he had heard around the hospital about what was going on outside. As time passed, the sand-nin saw that Kiba was finally beginning to relax. He could see his posture was loosening from its tense position as the dog-nin slightly reclined, using his hands for support, from his position on the bed. He also started raising the volume of his voice, becoming more confident in what he was saying, even laughing every so often, and teasing the sand-nin about getting bullied by Iruka-sensei and Captain Yamato. He was proving to Kankuro that the energetic boy he remembered from years before wasn't quite as gone as he had first thought.  
Before they had realised it, two hours had gone by with no halt in the conversation, and Kankuro had migrated from standing by the door to leaning back in a chair with his feet resting on Kiba's bed. Akamaru had shifted from the floor and lay happily on the end of the bed, his tail shifting from side to side, pawing playfully at the puppet master's feet whenever they moved with his laughter.

A cool breeze then blew through the room through the open window causing a visible shiver to run through the Inuzuka. Seeing this, and the goosebumps making an appearance on the dog-nin's arms, Kankuro shifted his feet to the floor to stand from the chair and made his way over to the window. He quickly pushed it closed, stopping the offending draught in its tracks. As he looked outside, he realised the sun had set; twilight had emerged as the sky steadily darkened with the coming night and he realised how long he had been talking to the other man. He turned to face the room again, receiving a grateful smile from the dog-nin, who opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Kiba called out, and Kankuro noticed a hint of pink touch the Inuzuka's cheeks, mostly hidden by the tattoos, and tilted his head unnoticeably in question. The door opened and a nurse bustled in carrying a tray of food.  
"Dinner time!" she trilled happily as she placed the tray on the bedside table, not noticing, or choosing to ignore, the distaste on Kiba's face as he looked at it. She turned and finally noticed the sand-nin standing by the window, jumping slightly in surprise.  
"Oh! I didn't realise you were still here, dear," she claimed with an apologetic smile, "you should probably head off to get some food before they stop serving; it's getting quite late."  
As if acknowledging the woman's words, Kankuro's stomach proceeded to grumble loudly in protest of his lack of sustenance. Kiba sniggered from where he sat; whether from the sound of the sand-nin's hunger, or from the presumably shocked and insulted scowl Kankuro was throwing at his abdomen was unknown.

The nurse covered a smile with her hand, composing herself, before turning to Kiba.  
"Now, you have to eat _all _of that Mr Inuzuka, or I will be telling Lady Tsunade that you're not eating," she threatened, receiving a scoff from the dog-nin as he childishly turned his head away from his dinner. The nurse saw this, and continued with a wicked smirk, "Or would it be more prudent to tell your mother?"  
The colour drained from Kiba's face, and he immediately turned to grab the chopsticks from the tray and proceeded to stuff the largest helping of the unidentifiable food he could manage into his mouth, nearly choking as he tried to chew it.

Kankuro chuckled quietly at the sight; Kiba's cheeks were round with the food he was trying to consume - a feat he was failing at rather spectacularly. His eyes and nose were scrunched up in a childlike manner as he tried to ignore the unappetising flavour harassing his taste buds. Smiling at the endearing sight, the sand-nin's stomach roiled, though this time not from hunger. He paused briefly as he tried to identify the feeling, but was brought quickly back to reality at the sound of a throat being cleared softly. His focus pulled from the dog-nin, and he noticed the nurse smirking at him knowingly before she nodded her head in the direction of the door.  
Internally shaking his head of his thoughts, he glanced back at Kiba, only to freeze upon finding the Inuzuka's bright and piercing gaze locked on his own questioningly. Quickly regaining his composure, he straightened from where he'd come to lean against the windowsill and quietly cleared his throat.

"So, uh," he started, conscious of the two pairs of eyes that were focussed solely on him, "I guess I'll just – yeah," he finished lamely, jerking his thumb in the direction of the door as he edged towards it awkwardly. He couldn't be sure if it was his imagination, but the dog-nin seemed to slump almost imperceptibly at his words, the light in his eyes dulling slightly. The younger man seemed to struggle to swallow what was in his mouth before replied.

"Yeah, I guess," he stated, pausing before he continued cautiously, "So, I'll see you later?"  
The careful question stopped Kankuro in his tracks, and he focussed more intently on the Inuzuka before he answered with a quiet, but meaningful, "definitely."  
He kept his eyes on Kiba long enough to see a small smile pull at the dog-nin's cheeks before he exited the room. After closing the door quietly behind him, he sidestepped slightly to slump his back against the adjacent wall. He gazed unseeing at the floor, unaware of the stupid grin that was spread across his face as he contemplated the nervous fluttering in his abdomen. He could hear the mumble of voices through the door he'd just exited, but couldn't make out any words. Just as he tried to strain his ears to hear the conversation, his attempts were interrupted by the sound of harsh footsteps coming from his left. Glancing up quickly, he saw a medic-nin slowing his walk as he approached the sand-nin, suspicion and questioning clear in his features.

Kankuro straightened up, smiling pleasantly at the medic before casually strolling past him towards the front entrance of the hospital wing. He passed a clock on the way, and muttered a curse under his breath and increased his stride when he realised that food would stop being served in less than fifteen minutes, and he was starving; though, somewhere in the back of his mind, he was starting to wonder if it was solely food he was craving.

* * *

On the outskirts of the village, many homes had luckily been spared the devastation. Amongst these, near the wall amongst a small copse of trees, and separated from all the others, lay a large cottage. It appeared to be abandoned; the garden was overgrown, allowing vines and moss to creep over the faded white walls, almost completely obscuring the unassuming brown door and darkening the already dirt-riddled windows.  
At least, it had looked abandoned, prior to the attack. Now a hint of flickering light could be seen breaking through a couple of the filthy windows, casting eerie shadows through the twigs and branches in its path. For the first time in countless years, there was a small sign of life in the old Hatake house.

Shadows flickered vigorously on the walls; the glow from the fireplace casting a warm light on everything it touched in the otherwise dank and barren room. On the floor before the hearth lay a haphazard pile of cushions and blankets, creating a soft nest for the occupants of the cottage. Clothes were strewn across the floor in all directions, abandoned without care.  
Among the heap of cushions lay two bodies on their sides, intimately entwined in each other's embrace, though no longer active besides the shifting caused by their increased breathing. Perspiration clung to their skin and dampened their hair in the heat caused by their activities, coupled with proximity to the heat of the fire, but neither could bring themselves to care as they focussed solely on the eyes of their partner.

As their breathing calmed, Kakashi noticed extra moisture trailing down his lover's face. Iruka tried to contain his sobs as the silver haired man slowly raised his right hand to gently wipe the tears away. The copy-nin pulled the teacher closer, not even realising that was possible, and murmured reassurances to the younger, his lips lightly brushing the skin of Iruka's ear in the process.  
Iruka wasn't sure why he was crying; it felt like all the feelings he had been holding back for the last few weeks were pouring out of him in a tsunami of emotion. He had worried that this might happen, but when it didn't occur on the first night of Kakashi's return, he had taken that to mean he had nothing to worry about. He had clearly miscalculated.

The brunette buried his face into the taller man's toned chest, desperately clinging to him as he tried to cease his weeping. His lover's soft baritone crooning in his ears helped him to calm his breathing, his cries slowing to the occasional hiccough. With Kakashi's surprisingly soft hands running up and down the expanse of his back, he was reluctant to shift from the man's embrace, choosing instead to continue to grasp him tightly, almost swooning at the scent he had missed for so long. His eyes began to sting once more, but he swallowed the tears.  
Kakashi felt Iruka's head shift slightly on his chest, and glanced down only for his one visible eye to be met directly with his lover's brown gaze. He frowned with worry as he saw moisture once again invade the brunette's tear ducts, ready to pull the man to him again. He stopped himself when he felt Iruka take a deeper breath in preparation for speech.

"Don't ever worry me like that again, 'Kashi," he murmured, his voice quiet but full of meaning, "Please; please don't make me go through that again; I don't think I could handle it."

The copy-nin gazed wide-eyed at his lover. Iruka had already said something similar to him when they first reunited, but this time he could feel every conflicting and painful emotion that the younger man was feeling cutting through his very soul with every word uttered. He felt moisture begin to gather in his eyes as he gently moved one of his hands to lightly caress the scar that ran over his lover's beautiful face. Not finding it in him to stop his own tears, he moved his hand around to the back of Iruka's head, gently pulling the crying man's face into the crook of his neck and kissing his temple tenderly as he held him close before they both drifted to sleep safely wrapped in each other's tight embrace.

* * *

Many miles from Konohagakure lay a dark forest, overgrown and festering in its age. Locals in the area avoided it by at least a kilometre if possible; strangers, who did not know of the danger or were too arrogant or disbelieving to care, were rarely seen again.  
Stories of what was contained in the forest varied, ranging from clawed monsters with a hankering for human flesh to a group of bandits or cultists that killed strangers on sight in indescribably violent manners. Others believed it to simply be haunted. Screams, cries, manic laughter – all could be heard echoing through the trees at any and all times of day or night, with no clear way of knowing which part of the forest they originated.

Deep within the tangles of branches and roots lay a concealed entrance; a doorway that led to a series of tunnels and rooms, as twisted as the plant-life above it, that stretched at least a couple of kilometres in every direction, as well as a few floors deep. A labyrinth, some might call it, which could take months, even years, to confidently traverse without fear of getting lost.  
Far within the confines of the maze, a few dozen men and women argued amongst themselves. The room was large with ledges and large steps cut into its walls providing seating areas set apart from the long table at the centre of the room. The people were spread throughout the room, though a few stragglers were still warily edging their way through the door.

"You're all useless," a short blonde woman cried out above the din from where she sat leaning back against one of the large ledges, "over a hundred of you sent to decimate that pathetic excuse for a village and all you managed to do was give them an excuse to redecorate!"

"Says the one who sat here doing nothing," a quiet voice replied. Though subdued, the voice held a certain edge of power that had others nearby lowering their voices, causing a domino effect through the room.  
"Until you actually do something useful, Rina, why don't you keep your foolish thoughts to yourself and hold your tongue," the voice finished calmly, but with a sting that had the loud woman flinching. She glanced to her left where the voice had come from, confirming her thoughts of who it was. The man was covered from head to toe in loose black clothing, a hood pulled over his head causing a shadow to fall over his face, disguising his features. His body wasn't particularly large, yet he possessed an air of malice and power that could bring grown men to tears, should he wish it. He had the power, Rina had heard, to move mountains with a single touch – though she assumed this to be a slight exaggeration. She knew he had a high standing with their leader, which in itself made him even more dangerous than he already was. He sat quietly on another ledge, his arms crossed over his chest and his head tilted downwards as he waited patiently.  
Despite her fear, Rina decided to continue, albeit in a more subdued voice, "Well, I'm sorry, Takeshi, but I thought the goal was to utterly destroy Konoha and its people, and that hasn't been achieved from what I've heard."  
She watched as Takeshi shook his head in exasperation at her words, but before she could continue, a loud voice interrupted from the doorway.

"It was never the intention to destroy Konoha in one day, Rina."  
She glanced over, but immediately lowered her head in submission as her eyes caught that of their leader.  
"The Leaf must suffer before they can be destroyed," he continued calmly, "and the destruction must be not only of the village itself and its people, but also of the soul of Konoha."

"Yes, Lord Ryuu," she stated meekly, her head bowed, "I understand now; thank you for clarifying."

She heard Takeshi snort derisively from where he sat, but refused to react to it in Ryuu's presence.

"Now," Ryuu spoke again, raising his voice slightly more so all could hear him, "the first phase has been completed, and Konoha has had time to lull themselves into a sense of security; it is time to prepare for the next phase."

* * *

**I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!**

**A combination of writers block and life got in the way. I've been working about double the hours I'm contracted for at work, and then I was at Download Festival last week. I've been so tired. :(**

**Anyway, here we go, Chapter 8 is _finally_ here. We finally get a little bit of a look at the enemy, and we also got a little bonus KakaIru.**

**Sorry if any of you find that this story is too slow moving, especially when concerning Kankuro and Kiba, but meh.**

**Thank you so, so much to the people who reviewed - you guys are the ones that made me more determined to beat my writers block into the ground, and for that, I thank you. 3**

**This story is not beta'd. I try to proof read what's written every time I finish a section, but I am capable of missing stuff, so, sorry if you find any mistakes!**


	10. Chapter 9

**Wow, I am so sorry, guys. I know I usually put Author's Notes at the end of chapters, but I feel the need to explain a couple of things.**

**Firstly, I know it has been a while, but I neglected to mention something; and that is that I have actually temporarily moved to China for a teaching internship, so stuff has been super busy and I haven't had much time to finish this chapter which I had started before I left in August. So, sorry for the delay.**

**Secondly, some of you may have noticed that I changed the rating of this story from T to M. I don't know how much smutty stuff matters to some of you, but that's a thing now. I hadn't decided when I started the story, hence the original T rating. So, consider this your warning.**

**Hope you enjoy the new chapter :) I'll try and update more regularly from now on!**

* * *

"Freedom!"

The voice echoed over the construction, causing more than a few faces to turn in the direction of the hospital entrance. Their eyes were met with a grinning Inuzuka stumbling out of the hospital, his ever-present hound bounding excitedly alongside him, followed swiftly by a hooded ninja hovering nervously behind him.  
"Would you _please_ be more careful, Kiba?" Kankuro gritted out exasperatedly as he walked closely behind the unsteady dog-nin, his hands held out in preparation for what he expected was an inevitable fall.

"Oh, come on, Kankuro," Kiba replied impatiently, "I've been stuck in that hospital for weeks; I just want to walk around outside for once."  
"I know that, I've had to deal with your complaining for weeks," The puppeteer sneered cheekily, receiving a withering glance from the dog-nin, "but you still have to be careful; despite your improvement, you still haven't fully recovered."  
As Kankuro stated this, Kiba almost immediately stumbled, falling forward towards the ground before the back of his shirt was caught by strong hands. He glanced back at the smirking Kankuro with wide eyes as the sand-nin spoke,  
"I rest my case."

After being pulled upright again, the dog-nin stepped quickly away from his close proximity to the sand-nin, brushing off invisible dirt from his trousers in his attempt to hide the blush that slowly seeped onto his face.

"It's not like I'm going to be exerting myself or anything," he retorted moodily, "Both Lady Tsunade and my mother made that abundantly clear with their threats." Both young men shuddered at the memory of the lecture from the previous day.  
"That's exactly my point," Kankuro said as they silently agreed to begin slowly walking towards the food tent, "you're too stubborn to stick to the restrictions, and if you get caught, or hurt, it'll be my ass in the meat grinder."  
"And we certainly wouldn't want that, would we?" Kiba replied, turning his head to the sand-nin shooting him a cheeky smile and a wink.

The action made Kankuro's eyes widen in surprise, and distracted him enough that he stumbled over his own feet. He felt a firm grip on his upper arm keeping him upright, and glanced to his side, seeing Kiba's smirking face mere inches from his own, gazing up at him.  
"Now who needs to be more careful?"

The sand-nin stood frozen staring into the mischievous eyes for a moment before they moved away from him slowly. He watched, eyes still widened and mouth hanging open slightly as the dog-nin started limping forward. Kiba went a few feet before turning and seeing Kankuro unmoved. He grinned lightly to himself, feeling a light tightness in his chest that was becoming a common occurrence for him in the presence of the puppet master; a common occurrence that he had subconsciously decided to ignore until he understood it.

"Well, come on then!" he stated loudly, "Are you going to stand there catching flies all day, or are you going to do your job and make sure I'm 'being careful'?"

Kankuro immediately shut his mouth and shook his head lightly to clear it, a small smile playing on his lips as he sauntered after the excitable dog-nin.

* * *

Sitting nearby on a large rock, a bowl of ramen rapidly disappearing into his mouth, Naruto watched his two friends interact as they made their way to the food tent, sniggering around his food.  
"They're so deep in denial, it's just sad," he said, his mouth still full, causing spittle and remnants of noodles to spray out of his mouth landing on the stoic man leaning against the stone below him, "but they'll come around soon, I can see it; but maybe they do need a helping hand again."  
A look of disgust crossed Sasuke's face as he rubbed his hand over the nape of his neck and his hair to remove the debris, "Don't talk with food in your mouth, moron," he grunted crabbily, "and stay out of it; you just said they'll come around eventually."

"What if they don't-"  
"It's also none of your damn business," the Uchiha interrupted, "if it's meant to be, then I'm sure they can figure it out themselves."

Those words made Naruto sit forward, a smile on his face. He grinned widely as he leaned down and ruffled the Uchiha's hair, and spoke quietly, "You mean like certain someone's we know? Aw, Sasuke, you big romantic, you!"  
The dark-haired man growled, instantly grabbing the blonde's arm and flipping him off the rock before walking away grumbling obscenities.  
Naruto sat up from his new position on the floor, rubbing his head before noticing Sasuke walking away towards the outer wall of the village.  
"What the hell was that for, bastard?! You made me spill my ramen!" the blonde shouted after him, "Hey, come back! Where are you going?!"  
The Uchiha ignored him, continuing on his path, seeing the main gate in sight. He passed through it, turning to head towards the forest, the hyperactive blonde still stumbling along behind him shouting and complaining. When he had reached a certain point in the forest, quite deep in the foliage, but not too far from the gate, he ground to a halt, causing Naruto to crash into his back.

"What the hell, bastard?! What's wrong with you, huh?!" the blonde cried out, deciding to continue his previous rant, "and why the hell did you flip me off the rock? You made me spill my ramen, you bas-"  
He was cut off by hands grabbing his upper arms and a pair of insistent lips crashing into his own, demanding their attention. His wide eyes immediately began to droop before finally closing tightly, as he fell into the kiss, lifting his hands to weave his fingers through black locks. He felt the warmth of Sasuke's tongue teasing his lips, so he opened his mouth slightly, granting access to the unrelenting muscle which instantly began tangling slowly with his own. Moaning lightly, the blonde tilted his head back and slightly to the side, deepening the already passionate kiss and moved his hands so his arms were completely wrapped behind Sasuke's neck.  
Sasuke's grip loosened on Naruto's arms and he lowered his hands to tightly clutch the blonde's slim hips, pulling his body closer to his own, holding the younger tightly against him. They both swallowed each other's groans as the proof of their lust ground together roughly, causing their kiss to intensify exponentially.  
Without breaking their connection, the Uchiha lightly pushed the blonde using his body, guiding him until the shorter man's back hit a nearby tree. Naruto felt Sasuke's leg find its way between his own, and he instantly began grinding his arousal against the taller man's thigh, his loud moans being swallowed by the other.

Sasuke slowly pulled his mouth from the blonde's, nipping at his lower lip slightly before moving his head to the side causing the shorter to open his mouth to protest. Naruto's objection was lost in groans when he felt the Uchiha's lips attach themselves to his neck, lightly scraping his teeth over the flesh as he sucked it into his mouth, a quiet moan escaping him at the taste of the blonde's skin. Tilting his head to the side to allow the older more access, Naruto's groans increased in volume and intensity, he felt Sasuke moving further down his neck. He moved his hands to once again grip the Uchiha's black locks, futilely attempting to push the taller man further onto him. When he realised Sasuke's mouth was as close as it could get, he changed tactics, lifting a leg up to wrap around the Uchiha's hip and subsequently pulling his clothed groin towards the blonde's own, keeping the captured man's arousal firmly attached to his own as he gyrated his own against it.  
Groaning loudly into his partner's neck, Sasuke released Naruto's slim hips, only to move his hands to the back of the blonde's thighs and lifted him up easily, the shorter man immediately wrapping his other leg around the Uchiha's waist to join its counterpart. The dark haired man used his hips to push the other more firmly against the tree, finally lifting his lips from yet another bruising mark on the blonde's neck only to move them to pause next to Naruto's flushed ear.  
"You ever call me romantic in public again, and I'll fuck you into the ground right then and there, moron," he ground out, voice deep with lust; but as the blonde managed to peek at the dark eyes, he saw the endless love hidden beneath the burning desire, and a smile twitched at his lips.

"I don't think I'd complain, bastard," he replied, his own voice hoarse from his moans, as his smile transformed into a lustful smirk, "Now, let's see if your bite is as irresistible as your bark, Uchiha."

* * *

Kiba let forth a gigantic belch, rubbing his stomach with a dopey smile plastered on his face.

"Ah!" he exclaimed happily, "I don't think I could eat another bite!"  
"Well, I would hope not," Kankuro replied uncertainly, a perfect mixture of awe and disgust etched onto his features as he glanced at the tall pile sitting on the table beside the Inuzuka, "You did eat five bowls already."  
"Well, I have been eating hospital food for weeks," the dog-nin defended hotly, "I don't know what they do to the food that goes into that place, but whatever it is, it's not good."

The sand-nin hummed lightly in agreement, smiling softly as his gaze fell on the light in Kiba's sharp eyes as they darted around taking in their surroundings; he was happy to see the younger man smiling so much. After he'd been staring for a minute, the dog-nin's eyes fell on his own and he quickly averted his gaze, taking a deep breath and stretching – attempting to settle the fluttering in his stomach.  
He could feel Kiba's eyes burning into the side of his head but he kept his eyes fixed on the middle distance avoiding the dog-nin's piercing gaze.  
"So," he stated loudly, breaking the ever-growing tension, "want to go for a walk? I can show you all the renovations."  
Kiba gave him a sceptical look, "I thought you didn't want me 'exerting' myself," he taunted insolently, causing Kankuro to roll his eyes in mock exasperation.  
"We don't want you _over_-exerting yourself, mutt," the sand-nin sneered back cheekily, "I'm sure a leisurely walk won't over-work your fragile little legs," he continued derisively, receiving yet another withering glance from the offended Inuzuka.

"Oh, don't give me that look," Kankuro chided lightly, standing from the bench to walk around to the dog-nin's side of the table and holding out his hand to help him up, "You walked right into that one, and you know it."  
Kiba grumbled obscenities as he begrudgingly took the sand-nin's hand, heaving himself up with the taller man's help. He started to limp away, but stopped when his arm didn't follow. A quick glance back revealed the hand of the unmoving limb still wrapped tightly around Kankuro's. Releasing the hand with haste, his face flushing hotly, he shot a glance to the sand-nin's face, finding the other's expression to be an odd combination of amusement and surprise. As he turned back to restart his limping walk outside, he missed the slight blush apparent on the taller man's cheeks accompanied by an affectionate smile as the sand-nin casually followed the other ninja outside.

After two hours of walking, talking and laughing, the Inuzuka's energy levels were beginning to plummet. The sand-nin could see that the speed of their already slow walk had gradually decreased over the last half hour and the dog-nin's limp had become more pronounced. Knowing how stubborn the younger man could be, he said nothing, choosing to just casually steer their walk back towards one of the makeshift barracks where, he'd been told, the Inuzuka had a bed waiting for him.

Kankuro turned his head to look at the other brunet, watching his smiling face turn this way and that, trying to take in all his surroundings while occasionally checking to see where Akamaru was. The sand-nin smiled affectionately at the dog-nin, quickly replacing it with the most casual expression he could think of when Kiba's head turned towards him. He wasn't expecting what happened when their eyes met for that brief second. It felt like the world around him had frozen in time; a painting that captured this one inconsequential moment that, for some reason, still meant so much. The contact ended as quickly as it had begun, both shinobi rotating their heads to face opposite directions as they tried to avoid the other seeing the shock and redness that had overcome their faces.

Glancing around, the sand-nin ground to a slow halt, holding out his hand to lightly grasp the back of Kiba's t-shirt. The dog-nin staggered lightly, looking back at Kankuro in confusion, only hints of redness remaining on his cheeks. He turned his body and took a step back towards the unmoving man, tilting his head up slightly in an attempt to catch the taller man's averted eyes. The dog-nin's sharp eyes could see the tightness in the corner of Kankuro's eyes, telling a story of stress and confusion that the Inuzuka couldn't help but try to place.

"Kankuro?" he ventured softly, pausing to wait for the sand-nin's eyes to meet his before continuing in a quiet voice, "What's wrong?"  
A sigh came forth, and for a moment Kiba was sure the sand-nin would brush it off as nothing. As it turned out, there was something he'd forgotten about Kankuro after all the years they'd been apart; he had never been one to keep his thoughts to himself. Though the puppet master had matured, there were aspects of a personality that were so deeply ingrained into one's being that there was no getting rid of it with the aging process. Kankuro had always spoken his mind, even when it wasn't needed, and this time was going to be no different.

"I don't exactly know for sure," he started carefully, his voice lowered to a barely audible mumble, "I've been feeling things since I got to Konoha that I'm not entirely sure how to process."  
Kiba's eyebrows came together in confusion, "What do you mean? Are you sick?"  
Kankuro chuckled slightly, pressing his finger into the creases on the dog-nin's brow, "Not exactly, if it's what I think it is," he responded cryptically, his eyes crinkling in amusement "some people might call it a sickness, but I disagree with that terminology."  
The sand-nin was holding back his laughter as he spoke, watching the Inuzuka's expression morph into a combination of worry and confusion as he tried to decipher Kankuro's riddles.  
"And do you want to know the best part?" the puppeteer continued around the chuckles he couldn't hold back, "It's all because of you."  
Kiba's face whipped up to look at the taller man's, shock registering on his features, "What?!" he exclaimed, his voice cracking slightly from his surprise, "What did I do to you?!"

Kankuro couldn't hold it in anymore, bending over at the waist slightly, holding his stomach as his laughter bounced and echoed off both the old rubble and new buildings that surrounded them. As his laughter filtered down to light chuckles, he stood up straight, catching his breath as he glanced at poor Kiba's simultaneously befuddled and horrified expression.  
With another light chuckle, he held his index finger under the dog-nin's chin, tilting the younger man's head up to look at him.  
He leaned down towards the other, stopping only an inch or two before the dog-nin's face as he spoke softly, so only Kiba could hear, "You can be so dense sometimes, pup."  
The words, spoken with such affection, coupled with the amused sparkle in Kankuro's intense eyes told the Inuzuka that he wasn't actually calling him stupid. As he processed the words and quickly went over the previous conversation, his heart skipped a beat. Kankuro could see from the expression on Kiba's face that the dog-nin finally understood what he meant. The Inuzuka's shocked eyes rose to meet ones filled with laughter and adoration as everything finally fell into place, and Kankuro took that as an invitation.  
His face drew closer to Kiba's, slowly closing the last couple of inches, giving the Inuzuka plenty of time to back out, but he didn't. Moving a hand forward to lightly grasp the front of Kankuro's shirt, Kiba closed his eyes in anticipation, waiting for the moment he hadn't thought would ever come that was now only hairsbreadth away.

A loud bark startled them out of their moment, Kiba's forehead colliding with Kankuro's eye when he jumped in surprise.  
"Ow!" the cried out simultaneously.  
"Damn it, Akamaru!" Kiba growled loudly at his best friend as he held a hand to his head, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"  
Akamaru gave out a small whining bark before he was interrupted by someone else.

"Kiba!" the powerful voice of his mother suddenly answered all his questions about Akamaru's interruption, and he scratched the dog's ear in apology before turning to face the clan leader who had just emerged from round the corner of the barracks.  
"Hey, mum," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as he shot an uncharacteristically shy glance to the man standing beside him. Kankuro shot him a wink before nodding his head in the Inuzuka woman's direction. Kiba smiled brightly, revelling in the fact that nothing had been ruined by the interruption.  
"I heard you were getting out today, but you already gone by the time I got there," she said calmly, her eyes moving suspiciously over to the sand-nin next to her son.  
"Yeah, sorry, mum," he apologised casually, laughing lightly, "Kankuro invited me to go with him to get lunch, and I was desperate to have anything other than hospital food."  
"Well, I guess that's fair enough," she replied, her narrowed eyes moving back to gaze affectionately at her son, "now, you look exhausted, so let's get you to bed."  
"Mum," Kiba whined childishly, ignoring Kankuro's sniggers, "It's only like, five in the evening, it's too early to go to bed."  
"Kiba, you're still recovering from serious injuries," she replied sternly, "I will not have you exerting yourself any more than you already have today, and you look absolutely worn out, now come on!"

Kiba couldn't really deny that he was exhausted as he watched his mother walk towards the barracks, but he also didn't want to leave Kankuro yet; not after what had nearly happened. But as he looked towards the sand-nin, he got caught in the puppet master's gaze as he smiled at him affectionately, giving him another small wink before murmuring words for his ears only.

"I'll see you tomorrow, mutt."


	11. Chapter 10

He woke abruptly, the sensation of falling causing him to violently jerk upwards in his bed. Staring up at the ceiling in the near-dark he tried to slow his breathing, taking note of the layer of sweat that he could feel covering his skin. The dog-nin sat up slowly, raising a hand to rest on his chest to feel the pounding of his heart beating against his palm. Leaning back on his free hand, he moved his occupied one from his chest to his head, tilting his face towards the ceiling as he gently covered his eyes hopes of quelling the flashing images that seemingly flickered past his eyelids in jump cuts.

Shifting his hand down to lay lightly on his lap, he listened to the light pattering of rain on the roof of the shelter for a moment before he glanced around the dully lit room, noting that no one else was in their bunks. A slow sigh of relief escaped him as he kept his eyes gently closed as he allowed the steady sound of the rain tapping on the roof calm his nerves.  
He'd been haunted by images of that day for weeks now; of the death, the destruction, and of the hooded figure walking calmly towards him. Kiba's attacks had done nothing to slow the man, a fact that worried the dog-nin greatly. Not because he thought he was weak, as he knew that wasn't the case. His concerns were for the sheer strength of this new enemy. So much had already been lost in the attack, and Kiba's instincts were telling him that the trouble was far from over. He trailed his hand back up to his chest and gripped his shirt, preoccupied with the ghost of the hand that had overpowered him with a simple touch; he'd never even heard of that kind of power. It was like he could still feel it thrumming through his veins, prickling at his nerves. The thought caused a shudder to run through his still slightly aching body.

Deciding to get up, finally, the dog-nin swung his legs off his bunk to sit on the edge and raised his arms to stretch. The action pulled on the scar on his side a big, causing a slight wince to pass across his face, but he could tell the pain was finally subsiding. He heaved a sigh before slowly moving to stand. He could feel the skin stretching over his thighs, his muscles pulling in complaint, but he gritted his teeth with a sharp glare in their direction before coming to a standstill once he stood at his full height. He grabbed some loose fitting trousers and a hooded top from the chair that sat at the foot of his bunk before pulling them on with a wince.  
Kiba glanced up towards the entrance when the sound of splashing reached his ears. Akamaru's large head peered around the doorway before his ears perked up and he padded over to his master, his tail wagging enthusiastically. Holding his hand out to his big friend, the dog-nin smiled as the hound smothered his hand with kisses excitedly.  
"Hey, boy," he said affectionately, "how've you been, huh?"  
In response, he got a large shake from the dog, getting covered in droplets of water in the process.  
"Oh, thanks," he told the dog, the sarcasm dripping from his voice as he wiped his hand over his face and through his hair.

With a final pat on the head for the large dog, Kiba decided to go find his friends. Though he tried not to think it, he was only really wanting to see a certain Sand ninja in particular. The thought brought a blush to his face that rivalled the tattoos that already adorned his cheeks.  
Heading out through the door with Akamaru as his shadow, Kiba tilted his head back, briefly letting the falling rain hit his face before lifting his hood. Glancing at the surrounding area he came to the conclusion that the rain had put off any renovations and rebuilding, essentially giving everyone a day off. He could only assume many were holed up in any building with a roof; at least, those that couldn't fit in the presumably full food tent. As the tent held most of the intact tables in the village, he presumed there were a lot of people spending the day there. He could see some people wandering around the cleared streets talking quietly to each other. Deciding to try the canteen first, the dog-nin swerved around piles of cleared rubble, making his way to the current main street that led directly to the large pagoda. As he made his way closer, he heard the sounds of the bustling crowd's chatter getting louder. He could make out a lot of laughter through the talking and it brought a small smile to his face; they needed a bit more happiness through this mess of a situation.

He was startled out his thoughts by a squealing figure's arms closing around him from behind. He turned his head slightly to see the culprit and got a face full of pink hair for his troubles. An exasperated smile crossed his face at the sight.  
"Hey, you mind not crushing me too much, Sakura," he asked rhetorically with a small chuckle, "I did just get out of the hospital yesterday."  
The girl immediately leapt off him in a panic, her hands fluttering nervously an inch away from his body, afraid to touch him.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Kiba!" she exclaimed apologetically, "I completely forgot! Did I hurt you? I'm such an idiot"  
"I'm fine, Sakura," he said, gently interrupting her babbling, "It's just, I've been told I'm going to be a bit fragile for the time being."  
"Not that that would stop the youthful Kiba from doing as he likes!"

The dog-nin looked over Sakura to see the grinning face of Rock Lee walking up, stopping beside Sakura to sling his arm over her shoulder.  
"Well, of course not," Sakura stated with a wink, leaning into the tall man's embrace, "I can't imagine anything slowing our Kiba down for long!"  
"Never!" Kiba chirped light heartedly at his friends, "But seeing as I've bumped into you guys, do you have any idea where any of the others are?"  
"Oh, sorry, are we not good enough company for you?" Sakura joked. Kiba sneered humourously.  
"Yeah, thanks, but I'd rather not tag along and be the awkward third wheel to your disgusting cheese fest."  
Lee and Sakura laughed understandingly, before telling the dog-nin that they'd just left a big group of the others at the training fields when it started raining. Apparently, the others were fine with the weather.  
"I would have stayed there with them," Lee laughed, before nudging his girlfriend lightly in the ribs, "But this one can't stand being out in the rain too long, so I said I'd go with her to get lunch."  
Sakura laughed, slapping his arm lightly.  
Kiba thanked them before limping off towards the training fields, leaving Sakura to watch him worriedly before she was lightly pulled by her boyfriend towards the canteen.

* * *

Chouji fell hard to the ground with a loud grunt, water from the soaked ground splashing up around him. As he sat up and looked down at himself, all he could imagine was the trouble he was going to get in when his mum saw his clothes wrecked by the mud and soil that was soaking into the fabric. Even at twenty-one, he was still terrified of his mother. He could hear the laughter coming from the others; or, he should say, he could hear Naruto's laughter peeling out above everyone else's snickers. The only one not laughing was Sasuke Uchiha, who was sitting behind the rest of the group under a tree, and out of the rain, leaning back against the trunk; but even he had a small smirk twitching at his mouth. Chouji growled in frustration.

"It's not funny!" he exclaimed angrily, "I didn't see any of you volunteering!"  
"He's right, you know," Chouij started as he looked up at the sand-nin who had just spoken, who also happened to be the same man that had knocked him on his ass. Kankuro continued as he looked down at him with a smile. He looked so much kinder without his face paint on.  
"You've improved a hell of a lot since I last saw you; you were always so focused on pure strength that you never worked on your technique.  
"Your taijutsu has gotten so much better since I last saw you; I can tell you've been training your ass off," he smiled at Chouji's now-beaming face before he glanced over to the others, "you guys shouldn't laugh at him; everyone has their own talents and weaknesses – Chouji's weakness is taijutsu, but it won't be for much longer as long as he's working on making it better – which he is - which is more than I can say for most of you," he told them, gazing at every guilty face until he came across a scowl aimed in his direction, "Yes, even you, Uchiha."

He turned back to the younger man still sitting on the muddy ground, and held his hand out for the other to grab. Chouij gripped his hand and Kankuro started to pull, noting a flash of movement from the treeline. He glanced up, dropping his grip on Chouji's hand when he saw a smiling Kiba with his huge dog slowly making their way towards them. He startled as he heard a loud grunt and a shout of protest.  
"Kankuro! What the hell, man?" Chouji exclaimed from his position back on the floor. Kankuro looked flustered, muttering an apology and holding his hand out again. Chouji held up a hand in protest before pushing himself up, grumbling about not want to get dropped again. He had seen the sand-nin's eyes glaze over slightly when he'd looked past the fallen man, and turned around to see the new arrival. Narrowing his eyes, he glanced between the two suspiciously.

Kankuro noticed Kiba's limp and hurried over to start fussing. Kiba light heartedly swatted his hands away exclaiming that he was absolutely fine, just a bit stiff. Everyone could see through the lie. There was a tightness at the corner of his eyes that indicated at least a modicum of pain, but they ignored it for now. Naruto pulled them all out of their thoughts by asking Kankuro who he would fight next, seeing as he won the last fight.

"I think I'll sit this one out," he said lightly, helping Kiba take a seat. The dog-nin shot a small smile of thanks to him before leaning back into Akamaru, who had lay down behind him. Kankuro smiled warmly at him before taking a seat next to the Inuzuka. Turning back to the others, he continued, "I'll just watch from here."  
Naruto groaned in frustration before running over to the Uchiha, who was leaning into his tree with his arms crossed and his eyes closed, before he was startled awake by a blond bundle leaping onto his lap, shouting about wanting to fight him. He rolled his eyes before shoving the hyperactive Jinchuriki off of him and standing up; he brushed dirt off his trousers before he made his way to where the fighting had been happening with a disgruntled grunt,  
"Come on then, moron."  
Naruto whooped with glee, scrambling after the stoic man to start their fight.

Under the shelter that the tree canopies provided, two men sat in a comfortable silence. They were watching the fight, but probably not paying as much attention as they should have been. Kiba was acting uncharacteristically bashful, glancing anywhere but at the man next to him. Kankuro himself, despite his confidence from the previous day, was also a bit uncertain. It was almost like they'd gone back to that day in the hospital, all those weeks ago, but less awkward. A comfortable silence settled around them as they listened to the rain patter against the thick foliage high above their heads and the distant sounding cries of their comrades on the field. The quiet was occasionally interrupted by some light conversation, but nothing ground-breaking was being discussed between them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kankuro had been watching Kiba nervously inch his hand closer to his own. A corners of his mouth turned upwards in amusement at the attempted subtlety, so he saved the nervous dog-nin the trouble by casually placing his hand on top of the slow-moving appendage, lightly tangling their fingers together, careful to keep his head facing the direction of their sparring friends. He felt Kiba jump slightly at the sudden touch, and in his peripheral vision he could see the Inuzuka gape at their entwined hands before shifting his wide eyes to stare in shock at the sand-nin.  
Kankuro gave a small smile, still not looking directly at the younger man, and gave Kiba's hand a comforting squeeze. It seemed to work; almost immediately he felt the tension in the dog-nin's body decrease before he shifted his body until his side came in contact with Kankuro's. With a quick glance in the sand-nin's direction, he shyly lowered his head to rest on the elder's shoulder. The shouts and laughs of their comrades seemed to fade away, leaving the two shinobi and the large sleeping dog in a peaceful bubble that, for the time being, could not be broken.

* * *

**I'm so, so, so sorry this took like... Christ, 6 months to be updated. I've just been super busy in China (where I'm now staying ANOTHER 6 months), and that, coupled with some crippling writers block - as you can plainly see from this snooze-fest of a chapter - caused me to be really slow at updating. I had the Word doc opened constantly, and every so often I'd just get an idea for a couple sentences, write them, then stop again. It was awful, and I apologise profusely.**

**I'm sorry this chapter's really slow and boring. There's not really much going on at all, except maybe a little character/relationship development? Maybe? I did intend to make this chapter a bit longer with more stuff happening, but it ended up being one of the shorter ones; because after 6 months of nothing I figured you guys deserve something, even if it is short and boring. If you still bother to follow this story at all, that is. D:  
I'm going to try my best to update sooner! I promise there won't be another 6 month wait.**


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